“Why do you need to take us to the morgue?” Kenji asked. “What’s down there? What are you going to do?”

“That’s none of your concern, Private.”

Just because someone says one thing, doesn’t mean that one thing is true. For example, just because the doctor said that being taken to the morgue was none of our concern, didn’t mean that it was none of our concern. Because the truth was, being taken down to the morgue was a big, huge, massive concern.

I for one didn’t much feel like going to the morgue. It was a place for dead bodies to be stored. For dead bodies to be cut open, organs to be harvested, autopsies to be conducted.

The killer robots in space suits wheeled us out of the room and down the hall. There were people running around everywhere. Doctors were shouting at nurses. Nurses were complaining they were understaffed. Patients had been left on beds wherever there was room.

I suddenly thought of my mother. I hadn’t seen her in what felt like forever. She had been working so many night shifts and double shifts lately. I still had no idea how I was going to tell her that I’d been arrested and about all the crazy stuff that was going on.

The soldiers wheeled us passed all the mayhem and into the elevator. Doctor Hunter leant over and pressed the button that read ‘morgue’. The elevator descended and I felt my stomach drop. When we arrived on the bottom floor, the elevator doors opened and we were taken down a long corridor.

Just then it hit me that we were completely helpless. They had sucked us in with the promise of medical help but were they really going to help us? Why did they need to take us to the morgue? Was it just another precaution? Luckily I was able to keep myself together. Normally I would’ve freaked out and I’d probably be screaming my head off like the scared little girl that I was. But since Kenji was there with me I was able to keep it together.

We must have gone at least a hundred meters before we arrived at a large set of doors. There were two soldiers wearing gas masks and space suits standing guard with their rifles at the ready. They opened the doors and we were wheeled into the morgue.

Inside there were a couple of steel autopsy tables with low hanging fluorescent lights positioned directly over each one. At the far end of the room was a large sliding door that I’m pretty sure was the fridge where they stored the bodies.

Positioned next to the autopsy tables were four other hospital beds. It was Maria, Jack, Kim, and Officer Dennis. I was initially relieved to see them. I was starting to wonder where they had been taken. It was comforting to know we were all back together. But then my relief turned to fear. Not only were they tied up as well but they were all wearing flu masks and Kim had been gagged. And it looked like nothing had been done about Dennis’s leg. The shard of glass had been removed but the wound hadn’t been stitched up or cleaned. It wasn’t even bandaged.

“Is everything all right?” Kenji asked.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The doctor was in the process of placing a flu mask over our faces. “The flu masks are just a precaution.”

Thank god he didn’t gag me. I think I would’ve screamed.

After Doctor Hunter finished putting the flu masks over our faces, he left without saying a word. The soldiers followed him and locked the door.

Our beds were lined up in a row right next to the autopsy tables, in full view of all the surgical instruments they use for cutting open cadavers and the scales they use to weigh organs.

We talked nervously.

“So why has Kim been gagged?” I asked.

“She was being just a tad aggressive,” Jack answered.

“That’s an understatement,” Maria said.

Kim started mumbling, trying to explain herself, but she gave up after she realized no one could understand her.

“Well, this totally sucks. Whose idea was it to come to the hospital?” Maria asked.

“Wasn’t my idea,” Jack said. “I wanted to go home, remember?”

“Hey, that man was in serious danger of bleeding to death,” Kenji said, defending his decision to come to the hospital. “You would’ve wanted us to do the exact same thing if it was you with the massive piece of glass in your thigh.”

“Not if I knew we were going to end up in the morgue,” Maria fired back.

“Speaking of Dennis,” I asked. “Is he all right? His leg doesn’t look too good. Why haven’t they stitched him up yet?”

The wound was oozing dark blood. Officer Dennis seemed to have passed out. Or maybe he was sedated.

“Is he all right?” I asked again.

“I think they gave him some morphine,” Jack said. “He’s just asleep.”

“Surely this is just a precaution, right?” Maria asked. “It looked pretty busy upstairs; maybe we’re just being isolated as a safety procedure?”

“That makes sense,” I said. “But why the morgue? This place gives me the creeps.”

I was just about to ask them if they had been interviewed by Doctor Hunter, and if he had asked them all those weird questions about being a dog person or a cat person, when we all heard a loud thump, followed by a weird scratching noise. We all looked over at the large sliding door of the morgue fridge.

“What was that?” Maria asked.

There was another thump, softer this time. We all strained our ears, eyes fixed on the large sliding door. I personally wanted to back away and get some distance between me and the fridge door, but being tied down sort of made that impossible. I just then realized if we were attacked now, like we were at the police station, we would be completely screwed.

“OK, Kenji,” I said. “These are your people. What’s going on? Is this normal procedure?”

“Yeah, of course. It’s standard practice when dealing with any sort of virus. It’s going to be all right.”

He said this as though he was trying to convince himself more than us.

“Really?” Maria said. “Well, explain to me why it doesn’t feel like it’s going to be all right.”

“We’re being isolated from the rest of the hospital as a precaution. As soon as they figure out we’re not infected they’ll let us go. Simple as that.”

I hoped he was right.

After a few more minutes of arguing we all suddenly stopped. We were really just going around in circles, arguing about the same things over and over. It was pointless. A couple of hours must have passed and we all fell asleep. I didn’t think I’d be able to sleep, especially in a morgue, but everyone was exhausted. Jack, Maria, and I had spent the night in a holding cell, Kim had been on duty for a week straight, and Kenji had been on the run, probably sleeping on the streets.

I wasn’t sure of how long I’d been asleep but I remember I woke suddenly. It felt like I was falling in my dream. It was weird going to sleep in a morgue and then waking up. I felt like I’d cheated death. I heard another loud thump that came from the direction of the fridge. I tried to sit up but it was difficult since my arms and legs were still tied to the bed.

I heard more scratching which totally freaked me out. What the hell were they keeping down here? I tried to wake the others but they were sound asleep.

That’s when the Doctor returned.