It's Good to be Afraid-- 31, October, Early Morning

31,October–Early Morning

Michael shoved Dawn's gurney ahead of him as the horde of vampires chased behind, tearing through the curtains of the intensive care unit.

The first of them had arrived hours before. One by one, Countess Borsala's former victims had come into the hospital via various entryways. The staff had actually put up a valiant fight for the better part of the night, but each creature had the strength of 10 men and could change form at will. The hospital staff possessed nothing that could kill the creatures, and as time wore on, a war of attrition was won by the vampires.

Michael's feet were slipping in pools of blood now as he tried to keep the gurney from crashing against the hospital walls. Three people were in the elevator ahead of him. Two were trying to restrain the one who was attempting to hold the doors for Michael. Both of them were shouting perfectly legitimate arguments to the third that holding the doors was suicide.

Before the argument could be won, Michael barreled through them with the gurney, and the doors slid closed behind them. Only moments later, the vampires could be heard beating on them. One of them screamed in frustration.

The elevator started to descend, but Michael slammed on the stop button.

“What are you doing?” asked one of the survivors.

“We're safe in here,” Michael told them. “Something I noticed about these things earlier-- they seem to have problems with thresholds.”

“Are you nuts? They came into the hospital just fine.”

“The hospital's open to everyone, but I spent an hour trapped in a break room with a doctor. Those things stood outside and stared at us, but they couldn't get in. The door wouldn't even shut properly.”

“So you think they can't come in here, either?”

“Not if we don't let them. We just need to wait it out until morning.”

“Hey man,” said one of the others. “We just got into this town last night. What in the hell is going on here?”

“Happy Halloween, I guess.” Michael took a letter from his jacket pocket and looked at it once more. On it were a time and place-- the old church by the cemetery, Halloween night. Above them this were 2 words: “Your son.”