“I don’t even know what this is.”
“Well, you’re about to find out.” He yanked open the door and a mist of cold air immediately escaped and invaded Annaliese’s lungs.
It took a few moments for the mist to clear.
She could not believe what was inside.
If this is a nightmare then please let me wake up.
“These people were all merely injured when we holed up in here. Just cuts and bruises mostly. But by the time we locked ourselves inside the kitchen, we knew what would become of them. We had already seen it happen at the bar.”
Annaliese stared at all the people tied up in the freezer. They thrashed about, spitting and hissing, some of them screeching at the sight of her. Ragged wounds covered many of them while some appeared almost uninjured. All of them had the sickness, though. Blood smeared each of their orifices and their skin was puffy and red. Annaliese stared at each one of them in turn, daring not to blink for fear that something terrible would happen while she was not watching.
“What happened in the bar?” she asked. She needed to know more. She needed to make some sense of what she was seeing.
“Like I said, we were helping the wounded. Some people were dead, their throats and stomachs ripped open. But others just had minor bites and scratches. We tried to patch up their wounds, but they seemed to deteriorate fast. One woman only had a bite on her wrist and she passed out unconscious and wouldn’t wake back up again. We assumed that it was the shock. I was feeling pretty weak myself. But then the others began to rise.”
“Rise?”
Shawcross nodded. “The wounded were unconscious when the people we could have sworn were dead started getting up and coming after us. Young Stephen’s neck had been ripped to shreds, but he was back on his feet, stumbling around like some kind of drunk. All of the people who we were positive were dead got back to their feet. We assumed that we had gotten it wrong, that the people had not been dead at all, but then one of us got too near...
The dead came after us like something out of a horror movie. But then, just when we couldn’t dream of things getting worse, all of the unconscious people snapped awake and came after us as well. They were quick as lightning, not like the dead ones, and outnumbered us three to one. We were lucky that any of us made it out alive. A group of us ended up in this kitchen, but half our number was badly injured and bleeding. It was too late for them, we already knew.”
Annaliese pointed at the people in the freezer. “You mean these people?”
“Yes. We had all seen what had happened to those who’d been injured in the bar lounge. They got very sick very fast, passed out unconscious, and then woke up again, with whatever it is that’s driving people insane. When one of the injured guests started feeling weak from his injuries, he volunteered to be restrained in case he became violent like the others. We attached him to the refrigeration racks in the freezer and turned up the thermostat so he wouldn’t freeze. Then, slowly, one-by-one, all of the people with injuries – no matter how small – started to come down with the sickness. Eventually, we had no choice but to secure everyone in the freezer for safety – theirs and ours.” He let out a small laugh that was more of an exasperated huff than anything else. “You know, it’s funny,” he said, “but not a single one of them protested as we locked them up inside this fridge. It’s as though they knew they were doomed; resigned to their fates.”