[This is a side story taking place simultaneously with the main story. It does not affect or resolve the fates of the main characters in Volume 3.]
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[Nurse Mali – City Hospital, Bangkok Outskirts – 12:05 p.m.]
The hospital which once saved lives is a tomb now, the moans echoing through blood slick halls like a funeral dirge that never ends.
My scalpel is warm in my hand, stained red from the last zombie, ofcourse another kid, it's uniform shredded, face half gone but still wearing that familiar Suksa High crest. Lin's school. The same crest she pinned on her blazer every morning with a proud little smile.
Lin's face burns in my mind like always, pushing me forward through the flickering emergency lights.
The ER is gone, patients turned to zombies, nurses screaming and walls crawling with the dead.
I slip through a service door, the stairwell dark and narrow, air thick with rot and the copper reek of blood. Every breath I take is smelling like rust.
[12:10 p.m.]
I burst into the parking lot and see sunlight blinding after the dim corridors and smoke choking the sky in thick gray pillars. I see zombies shamble between cars, their low and constant moans that vibrates in my chest.
I duck behind a van, my breath ragged, scalpel in my hand raised and my heart hammering so hard I can feel it in my teeth. A zombie lurches close, it's eyes milky and vacant while mouth working silently. But I'm faster, the blade to its throat, one clean motion and down it goes, nurse skills coming do come in handy.
It's Black blood sprays on my arm. I can see the dark thick forest looming beyond the lot, branches of trees like fingers reaching out. It's probably safe there, maybe.
I run towards it my boots pounding asphalt, the zombies trailing but are too slow to catch me. My heart is screaming only Lin's name with every step—Lin, Lin, Lin—like a prayer, like a heartbeat.
[12:15 p.m.]
The forest swallows me whole, it's branches clawing at my scrubs, the mud sucking at my shoes with wet and greedy sounds.As I move deeper in foreat the moans fade, muffled by leaves and distance, but they're still there, always there, a low drone under the skin.
Lin's bright, stubborn and alive laugh echoes in my head, the sound she made when she beat me at cards or when she told me about her day. She's in that school, that hell and as far as I remember there is a shortcut to school from this forest. They bombed the school to ash, they said on the radio before the signal died. But I'll even find her in those ashes.
My throat is burnimg, tears stinging my eyes, but I keep moving, scalpel in my hand cutting through vines and undergrowth.
The hospital's screams are distant now, fading like an old memory, but the blood on my hands isn't.
It's still warm.
I'm a nurse.
I save people.
I'll save her.
[12:20 p.m.]
The forest is like a maze, roots are tripping me, shadows twisting into shapes that look like hands reaching. My ribs are ache from running and my sweat is mixing with my blood.
I can hear a zombie screaming somewhere deep in the trees, its cry splitting the air like a knife. I saw it when I was in city, it screams to attract other zombie. Never in any zombie book or drama I saw was zombie types but yeah this world is built different.
I freeze and raise my scalpel holding my breath and listening to it.
It's far.
For now.
Lin's out here, maybe hurt, maybe hiding, maybe fighting.
I picture her scarf in her hair, eyes fierce, swinging whatever she could find, refusing to give up. Helping others. Leading her friends. I should've kept her closer. Should've known this was coming. Should've been there. The forest feels alive, watching, like it knows I'm coming for her, like it's judging me for every second I wasn't.
[12:25 p.m.]
As I run deeper I hear a crash, it's metal on flesh, a grunt and a low moan.
I creep forward, my heart slamming against my ribs, scalpel in my hand gripped so tight that my knuckles ache.
Through the trees, a small clearing opens up, sunlight slanting through leaves in broken gold shards and I see,
Two kids?
One is standing and swinging a pipe very fast like—crack, thud—dropping zombies like he was born for it.
His shirt is torn and blood is soaking his arm, but he's fast, relentless and his every swing is precise despite the exhaustion.
The other one is on the ground, curled on the moss and is barely moving.
Fever?
Blood?
My nurse's eye kicks in immediately, i can hear his shallow breathing, flushed skin and him trembling.
But my mother's heart stops dead.
Lin's school.
The uniform scraps, the age, the fight, can they could be—
No.
Not yet.
Don't hope yet.
I can't hope anything.
And I can't see their faces as it's covered in blood. I was only thinking all this and more zombies close in, three, maybe four, shambling from the undergrowth. Where are they even coming from?
I step forward, my scalpel raised, ready to help them, ready to fight it, ready to find her.
Lin's out there.
Maybe near somewhere.
I raise the scalpel, heart pounding, and charge into the clearing to fight those things.
[7:00 p.m.]
The kid with the pipe swings again and splits a normal zombie's head open with a wet crunch, but more come. They're just not stopping.
The one on the ground stirs, a weak cry cutting through his moans, anyone can sense the pain, fear, something human still clinging on.
My chest tightens as I hear Lin's voice, or is it just my hope playing tricks?
I'm close now, my boots silent in the mud and scalpel gleaming in the fractured sunlight.
The fighting kid's back is to me, his blood dripping from arm and his pipe shaking but steady.
He's protecting the other, no question, no doubt, the body between them and the horde, every swing is a promise.
I lunge on a zombie hoping i could save the kids and ask about Lin, but can I?
I have to.
I'll save the kids, as an adult it's my duty, well the kid is more precise then me in this. No doubt.
But will this zombies even stop coming?
Will I be able to save the kids?
Will I be able to find Lin?
Will I even be able to survive?
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