This chapter is dedicated to Shreya_VA (AKA: Miss Rose)

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Trypanophobia ~ Fear of needles

Miss Rose grimaced as she dabbed the few droplets of blood that protruded from the IV drip of JoeRover2 . It didn't make sense. She worked more hours than anyone else and was due a promotion at least two times over but she was still a junior nurse, responsible for administrating the dreaded needles.

She hated needles, or rather feared their potential. In retrospect, they were merely thin tubes of sharpened metal yet the biohazard was unreal. You just had to take a look at the news to see what havoc needles could spread. Meningitis, HIV, leukaemia... and that was only on the streets! In the hospital where it's bacteria bazar, the risk is even greater. It didn't help that she was also working in one of the most populated regions in the world; it was a miracle that a virus epidemic hadn't yet occurred.

Throwing the soiled cotton bud into the trash with a practised aim, Miss Rose sighed as she watched the clock tick monotonously. It was thirteen hours into her sixteen-hour shift. That meant she had another ten if she were lucky. Boy, did they like to work them overtime.

An almost expected vibration of her wristband alerted Miss Rose to her next point of emergency. Everything was an emergency nowadays. You got the flu - emergency. You had a malignant tumour - emergency. You were already dead for a few hours - emergency. Sure, the second was an emergency but the point was the term emergency was overused, a lot like the needles. Needles for everything. The breeding ground for bacteria.

"Nurse Rose, we have a problem." A younger nurse explained as Miss Rose pushed away through the double doors into the 'emergency room'.

"Are they conscious?"

"No, but-"

"Are they breathing?"

"No, but-"

"Are they dead?"

"Yes but-"

Miss Rose pinched the bridge of her nose. "How can there be a problem if they're dead? Just toss them into the morgue with the other lot."

"Can you just please check it out?"

"Fine." Miss Rose answered curtly. It's not like there was anything else she had better to do than check out a dead body right? Next time she might as well have stamped the words 'undertaker' on her forehead.

Doing a quick examination of the body it wasn't difficult to assess that the patient was well and truly dead. The skin had paled and the stomach had already begun bloating. Rigor Mortis had set in and no amount of miracles could bring the decaying corpse back to life.

"What seems to be the problem. He's dead isn't he?" Miss Rose questioned the nurse who had since paled to almost the same alabaster as the body.

"No miss. I'm afraid that this isn't the body. There were two a minute ago but now it seems to have disappeared-"

"What?" Miss Rose stated more than asked.

"The other body - it disappeared."

Cracking a twisted smile from the lunacy she was hearing, Miss Rose could only shake her head in dismay. "Please don't joke around. Dead bodies don't just walk off by thems-"

Suddenly there's a scream from the hallway outside and Miss Rose pushes past the nurse to see what looked like a living corpse feasting an another. She rubbed her eyes in disbelief and then suddenly there were two. She rubbed her eyes once again but then there four, eight, sixteen... They just kept multiplying at an exponential rate all the while the screaming heightened. The chaos was happening to fast. Why we're corpses walking? Why were they biting the living? Why the Hell were zombies in the hospital?

Miss Rose's heart rate quickened but now wasn't the time to be idle. She knew she swore an oath to protect those who were ill but she was sure it didn't apply to the undead. She could forget her track record of overtime; she wouldn't get a promotion if she was undead!

With the outbreak surging North, Miss Rose figured she had one of two options. Barricade herself in and wait for help or try her luck in the traffic running in the opposite direction. Choices we're always difficult but as she heard a snarl behind her she realised option two no longer an option.

Slamming the nearest object into the risen corpse behind her, Miss Rose darted towards the one way traffic. Although she hated to admit it, she was glad they were all weak and sickly - it meant they had bought her some time as a distraction. She weaved in and out of the traffic, putting as much distance between her and an untimely undeath. She knew a virus epidemic was going to happen, she just knew it. If only they had listened to her advice about the needles then , maybe this wouldn't have happened. She always did like the idea of the undead but not this way. Not as a zombie. A dhampir, great, but not as a zombie. Not as a walking carcass.

Diving under hospital beds and leaping over heavy machinery, Miss Rose was surprised by her athletic abilities. She always thought that the adrenaline boost was always over exaggerated but in the here and now she was happy to be proved wrong. What she would love more would be to be wrong about the virus as well. Please just let it be a prank. She'd get mad as anything but please just let it be a prank.

A sudden greying hand snatched as Miss Rose's face as she neared the exit causing her to stop alive in her tracks. The sickly crowd was still a couple of metres behind her so it wasn't possible that a lone zombie got through unless... Yes. It was her. The nurse from earlier.

The nurse made another lunge for Miss Rose who narrowly dodged the attack. Miss Rose had no fighting abilities but from the dripping wound at the nurse's side, Miss Rose figured even a zombie couldn't last that long if it lost good much blood. She would still have to outrun it though. With all the leaking blood it only made it easier for the virus to spread.

Aiming with a feint, Miss Rose dove towards the zombie. She connected and felt the force propel her target forward but the success was short-lived. The forward momentum caused her to slip into the pool of blood and before she knew it, her head had spiralled into a lake of scarlet, the viscous tinge suffocating all light.