Revisiting Fulci Hospital

Job Details:

Job Sign-Up: Page 25, Post Number 617

-On the roof of Fulci Hospital, midnight-

With the aid of the faithful android Ami, Diana landed on the roof of Fulci Hospital none the worse for wear. She had walked through Fulci and retraced her steps to the hospital until Craven Avenue, where she decided to just get Ami to fly her to the roof of the hospital. Now she was standing on the helipad and waiting for the backup Mister Burke had promised to show up.

Diana was here to honor her commitment to Mister Burke after being stymied by a barricade on  the second floor during her first visit to Fulci Hospital exactly a week ago. Before calling it a job and reporting her findings to the client she had had Ami fly her to the second floor windows to get a look at the number of zombies to determine whether the zombie threat was really that bad. It was really that bad. Diana had counted at least six dozen zombies on the second floor, if not more than that.

After completing the rescue mission to Haunted Castle less than a day ago she was here to finish the sweep of Fulci Hospital as she had promised Mister Burke a week ago. Like last time she had brought Saint Sinner Valentine, her SHG-IV Smart Glasses, and Ami. She had also brought a new power set geared towards eliminating the undead as quickly as possible. She also had a special company iLac in a protective case in a special backpack so that her SHG-IV Smart Glasses could capture footage of the hospital sweep. All she was missing was the support that Mister Burke had promised her this time around.

Diana's mission remained the same, but now she had to get to the hospital's server room to find and download data with a special emphasis on the e-mail that had been sent concerning the Fulci incident. Since the huntress was not very tech-saavy and had told the client, Mister Burke had offered the services of a specialist in order to get the needed information. Diana would need their help because she only knew the basics of operating a computer. The onus would be on Diana to protect them while they went about their work, but she could do it.

She had already swept eight out of the ten floors of Fulci Hospital a week ago, so most of it should be safe to traverse. However, Diana was not going to consider a hospital in a zombie-infested city "safe" until it had been swept a second time and all the reanimated patients and doctors killed. The wind blew Diana's hair about and slapped her in the face with a chill... it was a good thing that she had worn her usual long-sleeved shirt and cargo pants with boots.

"Hello, Miss Winchester? Can you hear me?" Mister Burke asked Diana through the headset. The wind picked up a second time, but thanks to the high-quality electronics in the Smart Glasses she managed to hear him almost as clearly as she would if he were standing right next to her.

"I can hear you, Mister Burke." Diana replied.

"Listen, there has been a bit of a delay in getting the specialist to your location. Would you mind going ahead and sweeping the hospital until you get to the barricade you told me about?" He requested.

"Not at all. I will sweep the hospital and proceed to the barricade." Diana said to Mister Burke. She was not sure what had caused the change in plans, but it was not her place to ask questions. It was her place to complete the job that she had taken for the client. Diana left Ami on the rooftop to watch for the specialist and went down into the hospital to sweep it.

-On the Ninth Floor-

Diana swept through the ninth floor of the hospital and found things to be largely the same as when she had left a week ago. The corpses of the dispatched zombies were still there and the stench of death lingered in the air. She had spotted no new zombies populating the area. She had expected some of the closed doors to have been broken open by newly reanimated patients or doctors, but the closed doors had remained closed. Diana suspected that whoever was behind them had died of causes other than whatever had caused the dead to rise again.

Diana swept through the ninth floor without incident and made her way to the stairwell to descend further into the hospital.

-On the Eighth Floor-

Diana exited the stairwell to return to the eighth floor. Again it had remained clear of all the undead except the ones she had dispatched during her first trip here. The closed doors had remained closed. So far this job was turning out to be fairly easy, but this was just the preliminary phase. The real difficulty would begin once she had reached the barricade and had taken it down to deal with the zombies behind the door.

Hopefully the specialist was a good marksman as well because with at least sixty zombies waiting behind the barricade the huntress would need all the help she could get. Her powerful In Nomine Luna spell had wiped out twelve werewolves and eight vampires in one casting, so if she killed twenty zombies per casting she could dispatch them all in three uses of In Nomine Luna. However, if there more than twenty zombies at a time advanced on her and she could not get twenty per spell then she would be in trouble.

Diana would just play it safe and wait for the specialist before she even entertained the idea of removing the barricade. It had been put there for a reason and it would stay there until she had support. Diana wound her way through the eighth floor without incident and entered the stairwell to go to the seventh floor.

-Stairwell to the second floor, twenty minutes later-

Diana had descended the stairs and now faced the barricade that had halted her progress to the second floor. Diana recalled reading the warning note and wondered just how many zombies lurked behind the blocked door. A small part of her wanted to leave the barricade in place and seal off the zombies for good, but if she wanted to complete this mission and fulfill her vow to Mister Burke the barricade would have to come down.

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Diana stood in front of the barricade and stepped back far enough to get a clear picture to show Mister Burke the barricade that had stopped her progress through Fulci Hospital a week ago.

"Mister Burke, are you seeing this barricade?" Diana asked her client while looking directly at the pile of desks, metal filing cabinets, and other objects that had been hastily gathered and hastily piled against the door to the second floor. He coughed into the headset and quickly apologized. He then answered the question.

"Yes Miss Winchester, I am seeing it. I see now why you had little choice but to leave the hospital the last time." He answered in the affirmative. Diana stood in place while waiting for him to give additional instructions on whether to begin taking down the barricade or to just leave it and wait for the specialist to arrive. After the faint sound of rustling paper and the rapid clack-clack sound of typing on a keyboard Mister Burke spoke again.

"In light of the barricade and the warning note that you discovered, I suggest you wait for awhile before attempting to remove the barricade. I am still having trouble gathering the specialist and their team." The client informed her. Diana did not like that setback, but she kept quiet and did what she was told. This was just a setback, not the end of the mission.

"Understood." Diana replied. She then found a safe patch of concrete that was not bloodstained or otherwise contaminated to sit on and sat down against the wall while she waited for further instructions or a status update on the team sent to aid her in recovering the data from the hospital's servers. Getting either of those might take some time, but any huntress worth their salt knew that patience was a virtue.

-One hour later-

Diana was still sitting on the concrete floor when she finally got a message from Mister Burke.

"Hello? Miss Winchester? Miss Winchester, are you there?" He asked. Diana quickly stood up and shouldered Saint Sinner Valentine.

"I am here." Diana replied.

"Ah, good. I finally managed to get through to my employers and a special team has been dispatched to your location. Please remain where you are until they get there." Mister Burke provided the status update that she had been waiting to hear.

"Understood." Diana replied.

"Is there anything I need to tell them?" Mister Burke inquired. Diana thought about it for a moment and then gave her response.

"Yes. First, if they see a winged girl in a white shirt and green skirt with metallic wings, please do not shoot her. She is with me. Second, make sure that if the computer specialist has a weapon that they bring plenty of ammunition for it. At last count there were sixty-plus undead sealed behind the barricade and an unknown number on the first floor." Diana answered.

"I will be sure to inform the team of both things. They will arrive in approximately two hours." Mister Burke replied before signing off. Diana now knew about how long she would have to wait until the support team arrived. She had little else to do but wait, but that was fine by her. The huntress could afford to wait.

-One hour after the status update-

Diana had sat down again and listened out for status updates either Mister Burke or Ami while keeping Saint Sinner Valentine at the ready in case one of those stringy-haired zombies found a way past the barricade and led some lesser zombies to her. So far she had heard nothing to indicate trouble. This was one of the slower jobs she had taken, but once the barricade came down there would be more than enough action to compensate for the downtime. She hoped that the support team would be up to this job. The number of undead on the last two floors of the hospital was unknown, but it was easily in the hundred-plus range.

Diana sat and kept an eye on the barricade while also watching the stairwell. She had no idea if the stairwell had been barricaded, but she did not have reason to believe it was, especially since the barricade that had halted her progress had been hastily erected with what was at hand. Also, the surviving staff might have just decided to escape while they still could instead of risking their lives to block the stairwell. Diana could hardly blame them. Then a thought came to her.

What if the surviving staff did not even make it out at all?

What if they were some of the zombies she had killed a week ago?

She had no clue. Maybe once the support team arrived and they took down the barricade and wiped out the zombies on the last two floors they could learn more about what exactly had happened at the hospital. All Diana knew about the situation had been pieced together from e-mails and paper notes she had found along the way. While she waited for status updates she recalled what she had learned a week ago.

She knew that the outbreak had started in the middle of the night and that the hospital staff was overwhelmed with a large number of bite victims whose wounds were made by human teeth. She also knew that as the outbreak progressed the Fulci police were spread thin trying to keep order but had set up a roadblock to try and buy time for a hurried evacuation of the hospital. She also knew that as time progressed the hospital lost a good deal of its staff to either desertion or being killed by reanimated patients. As staff either deserted or died the situation grew increasingly grim as the surviving staff had to contend with both patients who could not get to the helipad in time and the undead threatening to overrun the hospital.

Diana felt that there was no happy ending to that story, no last-second rescue for the brave people who had been thrust into a hellish situation that no one was prepared or could have prepared for. She would find out once the information in the server room had been accessed and downloaded for the perusal of Mister Burke and his employers.

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-One hour later-

Diana had been sitting in the stairwell for just over two hours at this point and was starting to get a bit restless. She had not heard from Mister Burke or Ami in a little over two hours and was starting to wonder if the support team would ever get here. She had been staring at the barricade when she finally got a status update from Ami.

"Hey Diana, I see a black helicopter approaching the helipad!" Ami called to her owner. Just then Mister Burke spoke to Diana.

"The support team should be arriving any minute now." Mister Burke chimed in.

"My colleague Ami informed me that a black helicopter was on approach to the helipad. Is it is the one you sent?" Diana inquired. She was worried that The Shadow Collective had somehow tapped into her communications and sent a team to try and kill her. She heard the sound of rapid typing on a keyboard followed by a brief silence.

"Yes, the helicopter your colleague mentioned is indeed the one I sent to you." He answered in the affirmative. Diana relaxed now that she knew a team of hired guns was not going to storm the hospital and try to kill her.

"Excellent." Diana replied, standing up and facing the barricade in anticipation of the support team arriving at any minute. She shouldered Saint Sinner Valentine and walked to the railing, then looked down to see if any of the zombies were climbing the stairs to come after her. None were coming, so she turned her attention back to the barricade and waited for the support team to arrive.

-Twenty-five minutes later-

Diana waited patiently for the team and was rewarded when a dozen-strong team of men in black armed with submachine guns and assault rifles arrived followed by a black-haired young woman in a blue DJ Kraken shirt and khaki cargo shorts with a pistol in a holster at her right side and a black backpack that was presumably loaded with what she needed to get into the hospital mainframe.

"Are you the independent contractor Mister Burke hired for this job?" The young woman asked Diana.

"Yes. Are you the computer specialist?" Diana asked her in turn. The young woman nodded.

"The name's Catherine. Catherine Corvinus. Freelance computer specialist at your service!" She introduced herself to Diana.

"As you can see, the barricade has stopped all progress into Fulci Hospital. I could not possibly move it on my own. We must get-" Diana started before the young woman held up a hand for silence.

"We've already gotten the briefing, lady. Let's just get on with this job already." The young woman interrupted like she did not have time to listen to the blonde.

"Very well then." Diana tersely replied.

"You said that there were a lot of zombies behind that barricade, right?" Catherine asked. Diana nodded.

"At least sixty, right?" Catherine asked again. Again Diana nodded.

"Well, I've got a pistol, but that's not enough to stop them all." Catherine said. Diana silently agreed with that assessment of the specialist's firepower and looked towards the barricade. The men slung their weapons onto their shoulders and began to move the items one piece at a time while Diana readied Saint Sinner Valentine and watched the door. She was sure that the sound of objects being moved would alert the zombies behind the door that new prey had arrived and would soon be available.

"Once that barricade comes down there's gonna be a lot of shamblers coming after us, so be ready." Catherine said to everyone. Diana remained quiet as the barricade slowly but surely came down, exposing the door that had been sealed for quite some time. Once the door was halfway exposed the sound of moaning could be heard from the other side.

Diana stepped far away from the door and began to channel magic for In Nomine Luna so that she could vaporize multiple undead when they inevitable poured through the doorframe once the door was open. The men loaded their weapons and aimed them at the door that was being cleared. Catherine retreated into the second floor hallway that had already been secured. The huntress' body was glowing silver as she prepared her ultimate crowd control spell.

A man in black cleared the last of the items out of the way and everyone held their breath as the door opened. In poured a gaggle of zombies that staggered towards Diana. The huntress aimed and fired her spell.

"IN NOMINE LUNA!" Diana called out. A bright beam of silver magic fired from her hands and almost instantly disintegrated twenty zombies in one shot, a display of power which left Catherine speechless.

The doorway had been cleared for a moment, but more zombies had spotted Diana and were shambling towards her, including a few of the stringy-haired zombies that had basic intelligence. The huntress raised her assault rifle and aimed for the head of a stringy-haired doctor zombie sprinting at her and opened fire, bringing it down with five shots to the head. Catherine's escort took it from there and began firing at the wall of zombies approaching them, slowly whittling them down with headshots while Diana hung back to protect Catherine on the off chance some zombies got past the escort team.

"THERE'S A LOT OF RUNNERS HEADING OUR WAY! FALL BACK! FALL BACK!" The leader, a middle-aged man with close-cut black hair, ordered his team. The team fell back and Diana covered them with Saint Sinner Valentine, picking off two of them with five shots to the head apiece before joining the team in falling back to the second floor hallway. She slung Saint Sinner Valentine on her shoulder and began retreating to avoid being overwhelmed by the undead.

The black-clad men had fallen back to the corner of the second floor near the nurse's station and had gotten into a defensive position. Meanwhile Diana sprinted for her life with a trio of stringy-haired doctor zombies on her tail while a gaggle of slower zombies followed them in the hopes of getting an easy meal. She was sprinting towards the men when their leader issued an order.

"GET DOWN!" He yelled at Diana.

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Diana wondered what the leader was trying to accomplish with his order. Was he trying to use her as human bait for the zombies? Despite her reservations she wordlessly complied and dropped to the floor.

The moment she did the men opened fire on the huntress' undead pursuers, killing one of the stringy-haired doctors with multiple submachine gun and assault rifle rounds to the head as she scrambled towards the men on all fours as fast as she could go. It was not the most dignified retreat in the history of mankind, but suffering a little embarrassment certainly beat getting bitten by one of the zombies pursuing her or getting shot by Catherine's armed escort. She heard the rapid footsteps of one of the stringy-haired doctors on her heels and heard it growl as it closed in on her.

The men focused on it and opened up, taking it down with multiple rounds to the head. The third stringy-haired zombie rushed towards Diana as she continued to scramble to safety on all fours. Two of the men hurried to the blonde's rescue as their colleagues held their fire.

"C'mon Diana! Keep going!" Catherine shouted encouragement from behind the black wall formed by her escorts. One of the men reached out with a fingerless glove and Diana took his hand moments before she felt a sharp tug on her leg. She had been grabbed by a stringy-haired nurse!

"KILL IT! KILL IT!" Catherine yelled. The second man lined up a shot on the zombie's head with his submachine gun and fired moments before it could sink its rotting teeth into Diana's leg. Diana let herself be dragged to safety as more of the running zombies came towards the group and the two men carried her to Catherine.

"Thank you both." Diana thanked the men for their timely rescue. They hurried to rejoin their colleagues in dealing with the zombies pouring from the recently opened barricade and the blonde took a moment to catch her breath. Once she had recovered from the unpleasant surprise she joined the men in fending off their attackers. She could see about twenty regular zombies and a new batch of stringy-haired zombies impatiently pushing their way past their slower fellows to get to the humans at the end of the hallway.

She charged up her In Nomine Luna spell and glowed silver. She waited until all the stringy-haired zombies were together, then aimed and fired her spell.

"IN NOMINE LUNA!" Diana called out. The silver beam shot out from her hands and hit all of the stringy-haired zombies in its path, turning them to ash and hitting some of the normal zombies staggering far behind them. The huntress had killed almost all of the fast zombies... of this group, anyway. She was sure that there were plenty more who had not joined their fellows and were deliberately hanging back to spring an ambush.

The men continued to pick off the normal zombies as the huntress looked to their right to make sure that no zombies had gotten by them to attack from the side. Once she was sure that they were not there she took Saint Sinner Valentine off of her right shoulder and aimed it at the zombies making their way down the hall.

Diana began picking them off one by one with single shots until she ran out of ammunition and reloaded. After a few more minutes the rattle of automatic weapons had stopped. The area where she was standing was coated in empty shell casings and empty magazines and the hall in front of them was littered with the undead. They had cleared out the second horde of zombies, but moaning from the stairwell told them that their ordeal was far from over.

The men began to reload their weapons and Diana began to charge a third In Nomine Luna spell to deal with the newest horde of zombies heading their way. Diana saw a stringy-haired nurse lead the charge and a gaggle of normal zombies follow behind her. The huntress would have to wait until the zombies were all in the hallway to get the most from a casting of In Nomine Luna, but she could not wait too long because the nurse was closing in fast and some of the men were still reloading their weapons.

The running zombie was within fifteen meters of them and closing fast and some of the normal zombies had squeezed themselves through the doorway, which was all the reason Diana needed to cast In Nomine Luna. The nurse was about seven meters away when Diana fired her spell.

"IN NOMINE LUNA!" Diana called out. The wide silver beam fired from her hands and the single nurse zombie and sixteen normal zombies were all vaporized in a single blast. With the solitary running zombie gone the men finished reloading and proceeded to take down the rest of the normal zombies that poured through the door now that the huntress had cleared the bottleneck for them. Once the last zombie lay motionless on the floor the group took a collective breath.

"We did it." The leader said. Diana took another breath. While In Nomine Luna was a powerful crowd control spell that was worth its weight in gold, each use of the spell cost quite a bit of magic power. Thankfully she had plenty of magic power to spare, which was good because the group had an untold number of zombies to fight through before they reached the hospital's server room and Catherine could do what she had been paid to do.

"I will go first." Diana said. The leader nodded and the huntress walked towards the pile of downed zombies with Saint Sinner Valentine at the ready. If any of them were still alive she would be the first to know and the first to put them down for good. Diana walked towards one of the stringy-haired zombies that was killed by gunfire during the retreat and toed it over, then examined the laminated ID card clipped to the pocket of their bloodstained lab coat. The zombie she was looking at was named Dr. Reese.

"What did you find?" The leader asked.

"Dr. Reese. She was a Doctor of Pediatrics one of the staff members who stayed behind while the hospital was evacuated. She was placed in charge of the second floor after the original doctor fled on board a medevac helicopter." Diana replied with a brief description of who she had found. She heard faint moaning and quickly aimed Saint Sinner Valentine at the doctor's head, firing a single bullet that hit it in between the eyes and silenced it for good. Realizing that she was wasting too much time on trivial matters, she turned away from the doctor and worked her way down the hall, shooting every downed zombie in the head to be certain that they would not rise and sink their teeth into her leg.

Diana placed a bullet in the head of each and every downed zombie, killing four who had somehow survived the firefight and killing them for real. Once all of them were shot through the head, she walked through the doorway to the stairwell and faced the recently opened hallway. Inside of it was another gaggle of zombies waiting for dinner to arrive.

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Diana's first impulse was to either aim Saint Sinner Valentine at one of the zombies or to charge up for another In Nomine Luna spell, but then she had an idea. She could get Ami to check out the second floor for her and perhaps even take out a few of the zombies who were likely in hiding and waiting to spring ambushes on Diana, Catherine, and the support team. Diana stayed where she was and spoke to Ami.

"Ami, can you hear me?" Diana asked.

"I can hear you. I was beginning to think that you'd forgotten about me after that black-haired girl showed up." Ami gave a cheeky response that implied that Diana and Catherine were an item. Diana ignored it and told Ami what she needed to be done.

"I need you to look through the windows of the rooms on the second floor and see if there are any zombies lying in wait." Diana requested.

"I can do that for you. Hang on a moment and I'll get airborne!" Ami replied. Diana heard the sound of Ami taking off and about a minute later she was in position.

"OK, I'm at the second floor windows. I'll check 'em out for you and let you know what I see!" Ami reported. While waiting for the report from Ami Diana heard the sound of boots on the ground behind her and found Catherine and her escorts looking at her. Two of the black-clad men covered their rear while the rest awaited orders.

"What's the situation?" The group's leader asked her. Diana faced him and told him what was going on.

"I am getting my friend to check out the area for us. I suspect that some of those stringy-haired zombies are lying in wait in the rooms. She will let us know if any are lying in wait for us." Diana informed him. She then pointed down the hallway with her left index finger. The leader walked over to her and saw the gaggle of zombies waiting down the hallway.

"Oh, you mean that winged chick in the white shirt and green skirt who was standing on the helipad is your friend?" Catherine asked Diana. The blonde nodded.

"She's kinda cute." Catherine said to Diana. The blonde ignored the remark and listened out for Ami's report. Meanwhile the zombies at the end of the hallway stood about blissfully unaware that their undead existence was soon going to be ended.

"OK, Diana, I've looked through all the windows on the right side of the second floor and all the rooms are clear. You can go in and wipe those zombies out whenever you're ready. I'll wait for you to tell me to sweep the other side of the second floor!" Ami reported. That was just what Diana had been waiting to hear. Diana turned to the leader and updated him.

"My friend has glanced through all the windows on the right side of the second and reports that the rooms are clear. She will wait until my command to sweep the other side of the second floor." Diana told him. He nodded to her and told his subordinates the news. While they had doubtlessly heard what she had just said, she did not want to break the chain of command, so she kept her mouth shut and put away Saint Sinner Valentine. She was going to use In Nomine Luna to clear the path and help the escort team conserve their ammunition. Unlike her Requip weapons and Saint Sinner Valentine, the men did not have the benefit of weapons with unlimited ammunition.

"I will deal with the zombies ahead." Diana informed the leader. He nodded and Diana walked through the recently opened door to deal with the zombies. She was not certain if the corridor was clear... zombies could be hiding in side rooms, but that was why she had volunteered to go first. If any zombies had hidden in side rooms like janitor's closets or break rooms she would be the first to know and would deal with them.

-Past the barricade, the second floor-

Diana stepped into the newly opened part of the second floor and saw that it had been the slaughterhouse the staff had feared it would become. The lower part of the walls was coated with blood and severed body parts lay scattered on the ground. Diana spotted the zombies up ahead and readied In Nomine Luna to deal with a good chunk of them before she would mop up the rest with Saint Sinner Valentine.

"Ami, please go and check out the windows on the left side of the second floor." Diana requested.

"Can do!" Ami replied in the affirmative.

Diana charged the spell and carefully aimed it just as the zombies finally noticed the human glowing silver at the end of the hall. They began to shuffle towards her and Diana's Smart Glasses picked up their motion, painting them with red squares for her convenience. Diana aimed the spell and fired once she was sure that she would catch as many as she could in the blast.

"IN NOMINE LUNA!" Diana called out. The silver beam fired from her hands and wiped out most of the zombies in the blink of an eye, leaving ten still standing. The huntress could handle them with Saint Sinner Valentine, so she picked them off one by one well before they could get within range of her. Once the last zombie dropped to the floor Diana paused in place in case more zombies had heard the gunshots and were on their way to get a meal. After a minute of waiting Diana pressed forward and carefully made her way to the nurse's station, where she spotted the corpses of four long-deceased doctors lying on the carpet.

Diana waited for them to notice her and rise and moments later they reanimated. Diana shot each one of them once in the head and heard the sounds of more undead being roused from their stupor. Her shooting had galvanized the remaining ghouls on the second floor to come out to grab a bite to eat. Unfortunately for them they would be walking to their own deaths because the huntress had magic geared towards putting down the dead and making sure that they stayed dead.

Diana looked around her and saw zombies shuffling out of the rooms in front of her and from out of the rooms to her right. She quickly retreated to the safety of the doorway leading to the stairwell so that she could lure the zombies into groups that could either be gunned down or hit with In Nomine Luna to take out up to twenty zombies in one blast.

"Diana, I completed the sweep of the rooms on the left side of the second floor and all the zombies have left them in a big hurry! Someone must have drawn them out!" Ami reported.

"I did." Diana replied laconically. She reached the doorway, then turned around and waited for the zombies to gather into more densely packed groups so that she got the most out of each spell she cast. While she still had plenty of magic power in reserve, she needed to get the most out of each In Nomine Luna spell because the first floor had an unknown number of zombies on it and she would need to save magic power for the fight ahead.

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Diana stood at the entrance to the stairwell and waited for the undead she had roused from their lethargy to approach the huntress. To her relief they were all the garden-variety zombie and not the stringy-haired fast ones, so all she needed to handle them was Saint Sinner Valentine. Diana waited until most of them were in sight and took careful aim before opening fire. A single bullet to the head would put these ghouls down for good.

Diana began tapping out single shots with her assault rifle and brought down each ghoul in one shot to the head. Zombies were far from the hardest targets to hit because they moved at a glacial pace and did not bother trying to dodge or otherwise protect their heads... not that she was complaining. The huntress was glad that she was getting a break from the fast zombies who led their slower brethren into battle. She was sure that the break would be short-lived once the team worked its way to the first floor, but in the meantime she would take advantage of it to regenerate a bit of the magic power she had spent casting In Nomine Luna multiple times. While it was a taxing spell to cast, she had gotten a lot out of each casting and had saved Catherine's escorts quite a bit of ammunition.

Diana picked off twenty of the oncoming zombies before she had to reload. Diana mentally counted down the five seconds it took Saint Sinner Valentine to reload and raised the weapon once it was ready to go again. She then finished what she started and picked off the remaining twenty or so long before they got within range to threaten her. The huntress watched and waited for stragglers to round the corner and was rewarded when another ten reanimated patients staggered into view from around the nurse's station. Diana waited until they were all bunched up before opening fire again, picking them off with the remainder of the current magazine.

Diana tapped the reload button and waited for still more stragglers to appear, but after two minutes of waiting she concluded that no more zombies lay in wait for her, so she turned to the team's leader.

"I will go ahead to make sure that this floor is clear." Diana told him. He nodded and the huntress started to sweep the second floor. The huntress moved forward and had taken six steps when she heard Ami's voice.

"Hey Diana, are you OK? Did you get all those zombies?" Ami asked.

"I killed thirty, but I am not certain if I got them all, so I am sweeping the area now." Diana replied while heading for the nurse's station. She thought that she had seen an intact computer terminal, but she was not sure. She would go find out.

"I'm looking through all the second floor windows again to see if any zombies are still in hiding!" Ami told Diana.

"Go for it." Diana gave the android her blessing as she reached the nurse's station and turned left. She looked on the floor and saw the four reanimated doctors she had shot before the rest of the zombies shuffled out of their rooms and towards the source of the commotion. To the right was an intact computer monitor with an open e-mail on it. The curious huntress walked over to the monitor and leaned down to read it.

"There's not much time left for us. Things have really gone to shit and there's not much hope of rescue. It's only taken six hours from the time this... this outbreak started to the hospital being all but overrun.

The first floor's completely overrun and the second floor stairwell's full of those things. We've put up a flimsy barricade, but we don't have much time left before this floor becomes a slaughterhouse, so I've authorized the remaining staff to move all of the patients who are too sick to move to the other side of the second floor so that maybe they stand a chance of being evacuated. It's not likely, but I can't just leave them to be eaten alive once those things break through. How did things get this bad so so quickly?

I don't know. I'm just a Doctor of Pediatrics who's in way over their head. Dr. Carlisle was supposed to be in charge here, but the coward fled on a medevac chopper and left the rest of us to die. I hope that when he dies he burns in Hell for abandoning us when we needed him the most, but I know he doesn't care about us. He was always more worried about advancing his own career than helping patients.

In the meantime, I'm trying to hold things together the best I can, but it's not working. The staff are at the end of their ropes and are frightened out of their minds. The security guards fled long ago, so we don't have any weapons or anyone to protect us. I know that I won't live to see the sunrise again. I just hope that the rest of the staff and patients are evacuated before those things get through." The message read. Diana recognized the "Doctor of Pediatrics" as Dr. Reese, the stringy-haired zombie she had shot a few minutes earlier. Diana had known that the outcome would not be good, but something about the hospital's last hours affected her more than she had realized.

Diana stood up and looked to her left and to her right. No zombies were in sight, so she went back to the computer monitor and saw a second message below the first. Diana used the intact keyboard to scroll down using the DOWN arrow button and saw the second message. It was a missive from a Dr. Wilson, Doctor of Cardiology.

"Dr. Reese:

If you're getting this, barricade the second floor NOW!

Those things broke through the police barricade about ten minutes ago and they're right outside the front door. The police are all dead and hospital security's nowhere in sight, so there's nothing left between us and those things who are eating people. This is bad. This is really bad.

To make matters worse, I think that Dr. Carlisle asshole called off all further medevac flights after he got to safety. We've still got patients waiting for medevac and we can't keep the news from them for too much longer. I hope that asshole burns in Hell for that. I really do. I won't live to see that he gets what's coming to him, but I'll be watching from the other world.

I've had all the patients who can move sent to the second floor where you can care for them. I know you're overwhelmed up there, but I can't stand to leave them to be eaten alive. There are still a lot of bedridden patients and not much time to move them. I have... an idea, but it goes against everything that I vowed to do when I became a doctor. It's so abhorrent that I can't even bring myself to write it down, but it's the only thing I can think of to save them from being eaten alive.

Oh no. They're in the lobby. I can hear the screaming. I can't wait any longer. I've got to do this.

Good luck to you, Dr. Reese.

May there be mercy on my soul for what I'm about to do." The message read. Just then Diana heard Ami report in.

"The second floor's completely clear as far as I can see!" Ami reported.

"I will finish sweeping the second floor. The team leader is expecting me to report back soon." Diana said to her companion before leaving the terminal behind to complete her sweep of the second floor. Hopefully the support team leader would not be too upset with her for taking time out to read the terminal.

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-The second floor, ten minutes later-

After completing the sweep of the second floor and dealing with a few stray zombies lurking near the stairwell on the other side of the nurse's station, Diana reported back to the support team leader. She had glimpsed into the stairwell and saw it full of zombies. The door had been broken in and overturned gurneys lay scattered about. It was small wonder that the barricade had been called "flimsy" by the late Dr. Reese, but it was the best the overwhelmed doctor could do with what meager resources she had.

"I apologize for the wait. I had some business on the other side of the floor to take care of." Diana apologized to the team leader for the wait.

"It's OK. I heard you taking care of business around here. What's it look like?" He asked the huntress.

"The second floor itself is now clear, but the stairwell on the far side is full of zombies. I believe that I have discovered why that is on a computer terminal in the nurse's station. It is filled with doctors, nurses, and patients who were bitten by the undead and reanimated where they were killed." Diana reported what she had learned to the man. He frowned.

"If we follow you and provide support, do you believe that you can clear the stairwell for us?" He asked her. Diana nodded.

"OK, you take the lead and we'll support you." He said. He motioned to his team to move out and Diana led the way through the hallway and through the nurse's station while Catherine remained in the center of the team. Once Diana got to within twenty-five meters of the stairwell she paused and took a glance at it. It was positively loaded with a mix of reanimated doctors and nurses along with plenty of patients.

Diana quietly sneaked to within ten meters of the stairwell and formed an Argent Hand Grenade in her left hand. She then carefully rolled it on the floor between the overturned gurneys and watched the silver sphere roll through the doorway before going off. She heard a lot of moaning and a few bodies fall to the floor, but the rest had been galvanized to seek the source of the attack and stop it. Undaunted by the cacophony sounding from the stairwell, Diana formed another Argent Hand Grenade and rolled it into the stairwell. It went off and killed more of the zombies, but once she had killed as many as she could with Argent Hand Grenades she would move in and shoot each zombie in the head to be absolutely certain that all of them were dead.

Diana saw four zombies shuffling through the door and aimlessly knocking the overturned gurneys aside, which slowed them down just enough for her to fall back to within forty meters of the stairwell, bring up Saint Sinner Valentine, and turn around. She picked them off with a single shot to the head apiece and waited for more of them to climb the stairs to get to her. She was not disappointed when thirteen more zombies shuffled into the hallway in single file.

Diana stood her ground and picked them off with single shots until none of them remained standing. A trail of bodies began to form along the hallway, but her work was not yet done because more of them poured out of the stairwell door, so many of them that some had gotten stuck in the doorway due to the bottleneck. Diana was not complaining because she had plenty of time to pick them off long before they got within striking distance.

She counted about twenty-five in the new wave. She killed ten of them before her weapon ran out of ammunition and she needed to reload. Diana stepped to the side and ducked, giving the support team a clear firing lane. She watched them go to work to deal with the remaining zombies while Saint Sinner Valentine reloaded, which took five seconds. Once it was reloaded Diana joined them in facing off with the stragglers who finally made it through the doorway now that their fellows were dead.

A few minutes later and they had all been killed. Now came the task of shooting them all in the head and clearing the way so that everyone could walk without stepping on a dead zombie. Diana took the lead and began shooting the downed zombies in the head with her assault rifle; one bullet was sent into every head. She did this until every last one of them had been shot in the head, then turned around and did it a second time, reloading when necessary. She could not risk any of the support team or the computer specialist getting bitten because she had assumed a zombie was truly dead.

Once the last fallen zombie had been treated that way she turned to the team leader and gave a thumbs-up.

The leader had several of his men carefully move the bodies aside so that a path to the stairwell had been cleared. It took about twenty minutes to move all of them into one of the open rooms, but once all of them had been piled in the door was shut and the path to the stairwell was clear. Diana reloaded Saint Sinner Valentine and took the lead yet again.

She ventured into the stairwell while the support team followed a short distance behind. Diana peered into the now-empty stairwell leading to the first floor and saw a lot of dried blood and quite a few severed body parts lying around. It did not take much imagination to figure out what had happened here. The undead had swarmed through the first floor and had entered the stairwell to find people unable to escape before they were devoured by the undead horde.

-In the first floor stairwell-

Diana led the way down and kept an eye on the door at the bottom of the stairwell. It had dried and bloody marks where something or someone had been dragged out. Diana had descended partway when the support team followed close behind her and remarked on the signs of the carnage that had happened here. She descended the rest of the way and took a few moments to breathe before she faced out of the broken door and caught a glimpse of the first floor.

The hallway was stained with blood along the baseboards and lower walls plus more severed body parts. There were numerous open doors that presented multiple ambush hazards for anyone who went down the hallway. However, the most dangerous aspect of the first floor was the sheer number of zombies inhabiting it.

True to what she had feared, there were numerous zombies loitering around the first floor, so many of them that she could not hope to get a precise count of them all. She estimated at least eighty zombies in the immediate area plus an untold number lurking on the other side near the plaza where the police had set up their barricade. While the zombies remained on the other side of the floor for the time being, once the shooting started they would shamble over en masse to investigate the noise. The huntress threw her left hand up in a "Stop!" gesture towards the team and addressed their leader in a low voice.

"There are at least eighty zombies in front of us and numerous open doors that may or may not house more zombies. However, I have an idea that may help us." Diana said to him.

"What did you have in mind?" He asked her in a low voice.

"I will get my friend to fly down to the first floor and make a distraction for us so that she can draw away the zombies waiting in the lobby. If she is loud enough she might also draw away some of the zombies in front of us." Diana proposed. The leader thought about the feasibility of the proposal for a moment before flashing a thumbs-up.

"You've gotten us this far without us suffering any losses, so I'm willing to go on a little faith here. Make it happen." He gave his approval. Diana faced the hallway in front of her and addressed Ami.

"Ami, I need your help with something. I need you to fly down to the first floor and make a distraction." Diana requested the aid of her android companion over the smart glasses headset.

"I can make a distraction for ya. What do I need to do?" Ami asked.

[Post Word Count: 1,436]
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"I need you to go to the front of the hospital and make as much noise as you can, Ami. Get a megaphone. Shout at them. Shoot them with your arm cannon if you have to. Just do your best to get their attention." Diana filled her partner in on the requirements for the distraction.

"OK, I can do that! Just give me a minute or two to fly around to the front of the hospital and I'll let you know when I'm there!" Ami said. Diana turned her attention back to the hallway and watched to see if any of the zombies had picked up on her and the others yet, but they remained blissfully ignorant of the huntress' presence. That or a smart zombie was pulling their strings and making them only pretend to ignore the humans until the humans moved out of the stairwell and onto the first floor. When the humans made that mistake, that would be the time for the zombies to strike and overwhelm their prey with sheer numbers.

"OK, I'm in front of the hospital!" Ami informed Diana. Recalling the presence of a police barricade, the huntress decided to order Ami to pick up a megaphone and shout into it. That should get the attention of the zombies.

"Look for a megaphone left by the police. That should boost your voice loud enough to be heard by the zombies in front of us." Diana requested. The huntress heard silence as Ami flew around and searched for one. Minutes passed and Diana was not sure if Ami could find one without exposing herself to excessive risk. Diana heard the sound of a weapon being fired and listened intently for trouble but after an unsettling pause lasting almost three minutes Ami spoke again.

"Sorry about that, Diana. I had a bit of trouble finding one and only found one in the open trunk of an abandoned police cruiser. I also had to kill a zombified police officer who spotted me at the last moment. There's at least a hundred of 'em roaming the plaza in front of the hospital." Ami informed her of the cause for the delay in communications. Diana slowly exhaled.

"Good work. Now fly into the air and shout as loud as you can." Diana ordered Ami. The blonde heard a chuckle from the other end.

"You've got it." Ami replied. Diana turned to the team leader, who was waiting for a status report.

"My friend has gotten hold of a police megaphone and is going to shout into it. That should draw some of the attention away from us." Diana informed. Catherine picked that time to speak up.

"Um, shouldn't we worry about her accidentally drawing scavengers to the hospital with that thing?" Catherine asked Diana. The blonde paused for a moment. She looked at the team leader.

"The lady's right. That might be a problem." He said to Diana. Diana realized that Catherine had a point. She was just about to call off the distraction when she heard amplified shouting through the earpiece of her headset.

"HEY ZOMBIES! OUT HERE!" Ami shouted. Diana's right ear was ringing from the sound being amplified by the megaphone. She took off the Smart Glasses as the shouting continued.

"HEEEEEEEEY! WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE, SHAMBLERS!" Ami shouted further insults at the undead. Diana was beginning to regret ever giving her companion those instructions, but some of the undead were starting to stir and move towards the sound of the voice instead of lingering in the hallway in front of Diana and the team.

"It's working." Catherine observed.

"Yeah, but we'd better get a move on and find that server room. If any scavengers hear that shouting they're gonna come looking for the noise." The team leader reminded them. He started to move when Diana held up a hand for him to remain where he was. He stopped and the two of them saw zombies that had been lurking in the rooms in front of them shamble out of their hiding places to hunt down Ami. The two waited until the zombies were gone before daring to breathe.

If the team had moved a few seconds sooner they would have been caught out in the open by the zombies and would have been caught in a bad situation.

"I'm glad we waited. Good call." The man complimented Diana's decision-making. Diana quietly took a breath. There were still fifty-something zombies in front of them, but there were nothing that could not be taken care of by a few In Nomine Luna spells. The huntress put her Smart Glasses back on and took a deep breath, then charged an In Nomine Luna spell.

"I will start taking care of the zombies in front of us." Diana declared.

She strode out into the bloodstained hallway and stopped about fifty meters from the zombies.

-On the first floor-

Diana aimed carefully and fired In Nomine Luna at the zombies standing in front of her. She would disintegrate twenty of them in one shot, but the rest would be alerted to her presence and move in to swarm her. It was a good thing that the huntress had not come alone.

"IN NOMINE LUNA!" Diana called out. The silver beam fired and hit twenty of the zombies, turning them to ash instantly. As predicted the rest were roused from their lethargy to come after the blonde. Diana stood her ground and began charging another In Nomine Luna spell as they closed to within forty-five meters. By the time they closed to forty meters the charging process was complete.

"IN NOMINE LUNA!" Diana called out. She fired again and disintegrated another twenty zombies, who was so focused on trying to get to her that they did not even bother to space themselves out to avoid all of them being caught in the blast. That did not bother the huntress one bit... their lack of intelligence made her work a lot easier.

The last ten or so zombies shambled towards her with single-minded focus as she charged for a third In Nomine Luna spell. Once it was ready they had closed in to within thirty-five meters, but it was already too late for them. Diana aimed and fired the spell.

"IN NOMINE LUNA!" Diana called out. The last of the zombies standing in their way were wiped out and the coast was clear. She turned to the group and waved a hand to signal them to move. The support team moved as a single body with Catherine in the center of them. They needed to find the server room before the zombies returned or the scavengers who had been attracted to the area by Ami's shouting arrived at the hospital.

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-The first floor-

The support team moved quickly to Diana's side and regrouped. The black-clad men watched the area around them while Catherine pulled out a small device about the size of an iLac and brought up a three-dimensional display of the hospital for everyone to see. A small area of the green outline of the hospital was flashing red.

"According to these schematics of Fulci Hospital, the server room's straight through that door just ahead of us." Catherine informed them. Everyone looked straight ahead and the silver door stood about forty meters ahead of them. On the left there was a keycard reader to restrict access to only those who had clearance to enter an area of the hospital that was as important as the operating rooms. There was no telling what was on the servers, but to find out they first had to get inside. Catherine turned off and pocketed the device.

Now where could they find a keycard?

Diana spotted a stringy-haired zombie in a white coat with white dress shirt and brown pants lurching through a door to the far right and brought out her Suppressed Submachine Gun. Diana aimed at its head and steadied her hands. It was missing a good chunk of the right side of its neck and the bloodstained coat told her all she needed to know. It made eye contact with her and paused for a few moments, giving her all the time she needed to shoot it in the head twice. It fell face-first to the floor and Diana carefully walked over to examine it.

She flipped the body over with the toe of her right boot and her eyes went to the laminated ID card clipped onto the right side of his coat. It was Dr. Wilson, the man who had written the last e-mail she had read on the second floor. She then began to search his pockets and found a plastic card.

It was a white card with a magnetic strip at the bottom. On the front was Fulci Hospital written in red letters. She believed that she had found the keycard needed to gain access to the server room.

"Is that the card we need?" Catherine asked.

"I do not know. Try it." Diana said, handing the keycard to the computer specialist. Catherine walked over to the door, inserted the keycard, and put her right hand on the doorknob. She pulled the card out and the small lights flashed green. Catherine opened the door and flashed a thumbs-up as the lights of the server room flooded the dimly lit hallway.

"We're in!" Catherine said. The support team moved in to clear the server room of threats while Diana lingered and looked towards the door the zombified Dr. Wilson had shambled out of. She felt a strange compulsion to go inside. She ignored it and hurried to the door, blocking it with her body so that the team would have a ready way out. Diana heard a chorus of "Clear!" sound throughout the newly opened room.

"CLEAR!" The team's leader said after they had swept every corner of the room.

The team took up a defensive formation around Catherine and covered every single possible way into the room while Diana kept the door open and watched the hallway with her Suppressed Submachine Gun firmly in hand.

"I'll need a few minutes to get in." Catherine said. She took off her backpack and unzipped it, bringing out a laptop and a special device of some sort. The black-haired young woman connected it to a mainframe and began typing. So far the coast was clear. Diana hoped it would remain that way long enough for Catherine to get what she needed and for them to get out of here.

-Twenty minutes later-

"Man, this was some really strong security for a hospital. That's strange." Catherine commented on the nature of the network security as she began searching for what she needed.

"How long will it take you to find what you need?" The team leader asked.

"Ten minutes, give or take. This security's really strong. It's like there's something we shouldn't know about beyond just patient records." Catherine answered.

"Well, get going. The clock's ticking." He said.

"On it!" Catherine replied. Diana turned her attention back to the hallway and the lobby, where Ami continued to shout megaphone-boosted insults at the undead to keep their attention and shoot at the occasional one just to be sure that she really had their attention. Diana hoped that the scavengers had chosen to take tonight off.

-Forty minutes later-

"Man, that was really tough, but we've got the data." Catherine said, disconnecting the special device and powering down her laptop, then patting the laptop affectionately. She put both of them in her backpack and set out for the door. Diana was glad to see that she had gotten what they had come for.

"Good. I'm calling for extraction now." The leader said. He began saying a lengthy code phrase and Diana heard a voice on the other end reply. She turned her attention back to the hallway and lobby and saw that both of them were clear. This was going well... almost too well.

"OK, we've got our chopper coming in, ETA thirty minutes." The leader informed everyone. Diana held the door open as the team filed out and Catherine got into the middle of them. Once everyone was out of the room Diana gently shut the door.

Now that the team's business was taken care of Diana felt drawn to the room the doctor had come out of. She again fought the urge and left with the team to head back to the helipad on the roof. Diana heard Ami shouting a string of insults at the undead about their hygiene at the top of her lungs. The blonde's right ear was starting to ring, so she decided to finally end it.

"Ami, we have what we need. You can stop now." Diana requested of her companion, who was winding up for another stream of invective.

"Oh, sorry! I'll quit now. To be honest, I was starting to run out of material." Ami sheepishly apologized and finally stopped shouting. Diana was never so glad to hear silence.

-On the rooftop helipad, twenty-five minutes later-

Diana and the team arrived without issue on the helipad rooftop and waited for pickup.

"Team leader, ETA five minutes to extraction!" A voice notified the team leader over his headset. He smiled.

"ETA to extraction is five minutes. Copy that." He answered. Everyone present breathed a sigh of relief, Diana included. This job was just about over.

Ami flew up onto the rooftop and landed in front of Diana. She was about to raise the megaphone when Diana silently stuck out her hand and pushed it down.

"Whoops. Sorry about that." Ami apologized. She walked over to a searchlight and turned off the megaphone, then set it down to the left of the base of the searchlight. Diana was relieved to see it go.

Now all she had to do was wait for extraction and count the money that she would be paid for this operation.

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-Eight hours later, Shirotsume-

The extraction had went off without a hitch. The helicopter had arrived on time and Catherine and the support team boarded it without any delay. Diana had dispelled her Suppressed Submachine Gun and got on board. The helicopter immediately took off while Ami followed close behind them. According to Ami they had timed their departure perfectly; the helicopter lifted off just as a team of scavengers on motorcycles was fighting their way through the zombies in front of the hospital.

Standing in front of Mister Burke in his third floor meeting room, Diana listened to Mister Burke give her a very condensed version of the files that Catherine had recovered.

"Aside from the expected patient records, Miss Corvinus also managed to find some sensitive files. The encryption on them is strong, way too strong for an ordinary hospital." Mister Burke told her a small bit of the data that Catherine had found. Diana briefly wondered what was so important that it merited encryption far beyond what ordinary hospitals used. There was a possibility that it was linked to the Dr. Carlisle mentioned so often in the hospital's e-mails and condemned as a coward who abandoned his responsibilities when he was needed the most. It was possible that Dr. Carlisle had fled and then ordered a stop to all evacuations once he himself had reached safety. Diana did not take very long to put two and two together.

Dr. Carlisle would be hailed as a hero for making the tough decision to stop medevac flights to Fulci Hospital to prevent the spread of the mysterious illness that was bringing the dead back to life. However, that was a fringe benefit to his ulterior motive, which was to make sure that whatever secret Catherine had been uncovered stayed secret until he could arrange to have it permanently erased. At least that was her hypothesis. Without solid proof it would remain just that, a hypothesis.

"We have found quite a lot of interesting information. Our experts will be quite busy attempting to decrypt the files. In the meantime, I would like to extend to you another job offer." Mister Burke said to Diana.

"When we decrypt the files, I may need someone to go back to Fulci Hospital a third time and look for more evidence on the activities of someone named Doctor Carlisle. His name has come up several times in hospital e-mails sent during the rise of the undead in Fulci. According to the e-mails we read he fled the hospital in the early stages of the outbreak and left the rest of the hospital staff to fend for themselves. We would like to know why." He gave a description of what needed to be done once the files had been decrypted and their secrets discovered.

"When the time comes, I will take the job." Diana assured him. Mister Burke's smile was beaming.

"Excellent, Miss Winchester. You are among the most reliable of my independent contractors. Both Miss Corvinus and the support team leader spoke highly of your ability to remain calm under pressure and your quick thinking. I trust that when the time comes you will come through for me once again." He expressed happiness in her offering to take the job. Diana had no trouble taking the job. Mister Burke was honest about what he wanted and always paid well and on time. He was the closest thing to a dream client the blonde had.

"Now, you must be tired. Would you like to use my guest room for the night?" He offered her a place to stay.

"Yes, please." Diana accepted the offer of a place to stay. She was tired and was not quite up to walking all the way back home. She would get up and travel in the morning.

"Splendid. I will let my men and the household staff know that you are my guest for the night. You know where the guest room is." He said to her. Diana thanked him for his generosity and left the meeting room to go take a shower and get some sleep. Once she got back home she was going to take an easy job that did not involve zombies, conspiracies, and hospitals. Maybe one of Hargeon Town's cruise lines needed a temporary employee to fill the gap in manpower. Or maybe some young and bored scion of upper-class Capital Crocus society needed a partner to go to the mall with them.

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[Total Word Count: 11,462/11,000]