Short Story: The Last Patient by Samuel L Bryant

Really digging all the short stories I've been getting. This one was sent by a sixteen year old and I got to say, I'm impressed. One of the scariest stories posted so far! As said before and I'll probably say it again and again, if you have a short story and would like to share it on this site, then please email me @ scaredsheetlessncn@hotmail.com

Scared rated this story T for Teen.

Enjoy!

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 The Last Patient

       My name was once Patrick Day, and I was an engineer. Graduate of Boulder University with a masters degree in engineering, I was the Valedictorian for goodness sake. Look at me now, an unimportant maintinance man in a small city.

          This is the eighth time I've been called in to fix the computer at the Franklin Memorial Hospital. I swear the doctors have to be doing something to the systems here.  They tell me that it just started deleting patient records, and reseting patient number designations. I think that some jilted ex-employee just hacked it to get some petty form of revenge.

          "How ya' doin' Pat, I sure am happy that they send the same guy every time. I bet you're just happy to have repeat work." I wasn't. To me, repeat work meant that I wasn't doing my job right. I simply nodded in response. I typed the code into the elavator pad, so it would take me to the mainframe room. Once I hit enter I waited a moment and the prompt monitor told me that the code was wrong. I stepped out of the elevator and was about to ask what the new code was, but before I could say anything I heard a loud cracking sound.

          As I rounded the corner that led to the foyer I saw one of the doctors standing over the clerk with his large white hands wraped around his now broken neck. I was about to ask what was going on, but before I said anything I noticed that their were several doctors who were going around the room and doing the same to the oddly docile patients. I simply ran back down the hall.

          I had no idea where I would be going, but I knew that I had to fix this somehow. The one time I actually needed to be thinking I couldn't my mind was still replaying the repeated neck snapping over  and over again. In my mad sprint I noticed an abandoned nurses station. I stopped to check the computer that would undoubtedly be on the counter of the station, hoping that it would hold a clue as to what had happened. Just as I logged onto the computer the thought occurred to me that it was strange that I hadn't seen anyone since I left the waiting room. I hacked the security system from the nurses station, and started flipping through the many cameras that were placed in each room, and hallway. Not a single person was anywhere except for the waiting room. The doctors were in a row, each with a line of patients in front of them. The doctors were snapping their necks one at a time, and the nurses were carting the corpses off to god knows where.  As gazed at the screen I realized that as they ran out of patients in their line the doctors were leaving, not leaving but going down the halls, surely to find more victims.

          Running out of the nurse's station I still had no idea on how to resolve this. I ran into one of the doctors. He asked “ Are you a patient ?” as I began running one of the patients stepped out of a room and walked up to the doctor, but before the he could say anything to the doctor his neck had been snapped. I wasn't stupid and had no intentions on standing there to ask him why he had gone crazy, or why the staff had gone nuts. I just ran thinking that I was gonna die here.

          I thought that maybe I could find a clue in the mainframe room whose code had been changed. Now the only problem was getting that code. As I rounded yet another corner I bumped a surgeon, who said “Are you a patient” I was silent “ designating patient idea. Number 00001.” He lurched towards me with murderous intent. I snatched the heavy duty flashlight off my belt clip, and swung at him. He fell to the ground, and I kept hitting him over and over again just to make sure he was dead. I checked his pockets while wondering what he had said. All I had heard was a loud droning sound. Yes! He had a code on him, and I just hoped that it was the code. I found an elevator after running down a few more eerily silent halls. I punched his code into the prompt machine. It buzzed in acceptance, and the elevator began to move.

          As the door slid open I realized that any number of deranged doctors could already be down here. I walked towards the comically large monitor in the middle of the room. Slowly and cautiously walking towards it as deliberately as I could. On the screen I saw a huge message on it that read “Master directive initiated. Sending liquidation orders to all implanted medical staff” What could that mean. Brrrshk. The power went out, and judging by the volume of the sound even the backups went out. I was trapped.

          Before anything else could go wrong I stumbled around looking for the service stairs. As I ran up them to the first door I could find I could hear people walking through the walls. I reached for a door but it opened before I reached it. A crazed doctor stood behind it, and I could see more of his newly twisted ilk behind him. I kept running up those long long stairs. Each door opened as I came near it, so I kept going and going. I thought I would die before I got anywhere safe, but I finally reached a door that was opened prior to my presence. It lead to the roof. I ran to each edge looking to see if any building was within a non-fatal jumping range, their were none.

          I turned to face the door when I heard it opening. At least fifty doctors were standing in front of me in perfect formation. One of them stepped forward “Day, Patrick I hope you had a pleasant stay at my hospital. It looks as if you were our last patient...”

By: Samuel L Bryant.