Grady Memorial Hospital
Wu Fan stood on the edge of the roof, watching the Walkerss still wandering below the balcony, silent for a few seconds, then turned around.
"Where is Maddie?"
He asked, "Has anyone seen her?"
Hans was preparing to light his second cigarette, his hand pausing in mid-air.
The expressions of the others changed as well.
That silence was heavier than any words.
"Let me tell him."
Hans put away his cigarette and took a deep breath.
"The day the apocalypse broke out, the hospital called 911, saying many patients had suddenly become aggressive and started biting people. Dawn took a few people to handle it first. Later, when the situation escalated, over a dozen of us went to provide support."
He paused, his eyes looking a bit dazed, as if recalling those chaotic scenes.
"At the time, we didn't know those who had been bitten were beyond saving. We just wanted to maintain order and control those manic patients. Handcuffs, hospital beds, whatever we could use, we used. Five or six of our guys were bitten, and we didn't pay much attention to it—thinking we could just bandage them up later."
"And then?" Rick asked.
Hans gave a bitter smile. "Later, those who had been bitten started going crazy. Right before our eyes, they turned into the same things as those outside. Two of them bit Will and Gil to death on the spot. There were already many doctors and nurses in the hospital who had been bitten, and they all turned as well."
"The military arrived."
Another officer added, "They wanted to control the situation, but it was already too late. People were biting everywhere, blood was everywhere. They started shooting those who had already turned into Walkerss, but there was just no killing them all."
"What about Maddie?"
Wu Fan asked again.
Hans looked at him, a hint of apology in his eyes.
"The day she was brought in, the military was organizing an evacuation. They took all the doctors and nurses they could and then told us—everyone who had been bitten had to die. They told us to do it ourselves."
"We didn't do it."
Another officer said, "We stopped two doctors and a nurse to help bandage our people, but it was too late by then. Several of those who had been bitten had already started running a fever."
"Maddie was lying on a hospital bed in the lobby at the time."
Hans's voice was very low. "Her leg was crushed by a car, and she couldn't move. We were trying to figure out how to carry her up when the Walkerss outside swarmed in."
Wu Fan closed his eyes.
"They surrounded the lobby."
Hans continued, "We could only use hospital beds and debris to block the stairwell, watching those things below..."
He didn't finish.
But the meaning was already clear.
Wu Fan was silent for a long time.
Then he opened his eyes and sighed.
"That's fate."
He turned and walked toward the other end of the corridor.
Hans followed and whispered, "Wu, I'm sorry, we at the time..."
"I don't blame you."
Wu Fan waved his hand. "In that situation, just surviving was difficult enough."
He stopped and turned to ask, "By the way, where is Dawn?"
Hans's expression changed slightly.
"Downstairs."
He said, "We had an argument earlier."
"What about?"
Hans looked around and lowered his voice. "I wanted to take people and break out, but she thought staying in the hospital was safer. I called her a coward, and she called me a death-seeker."
Wu Fan frowned.
He knew this part of the plot.
In the original story, the conflict between Dawn and Hans started right here.
Later, in order to gain control, Dawn even killed Hans to seize power.
"How many people does she have left under her?"
Hans thought for a moment. "Four, five including her."
"What about the doctors?"
"Both are still here. The nurse was bitten, later turned into a Walkers, and we killed her and threw her into the elevator shaft."
"Are there any patients left here?"
"Three."
Hans pointed to a ward at the end of the corridor. "A teenager named Noah, a young woman named something like Joan, and an old lady with dementia named Percy."
Wu Fan nodded.
Noah.
He remembered this character.
In the original story, he was a fairly important supporting character.
"Where is Dawn?"
"The seventh floor, her so-called office."
When Hans said this, there was a hint of sarcasm in his tone.
Wu Fan didn't speak and walked toward the stairs.
Rick and Shane exchanged a look and followed.
The seventh floor.
Dawn was sitting behind a desk, pretending to flip through some documents.
Seeing Wu Fan walk in, a smile spread across her face.
"Yo, isn't this Wu?"
She stood up, walked around the desk, and headed toward Wu Fan.
That look, that expression, made Wu Fan feel uncomfortable all over.
She had always been interested in him.
From the first day he worked as a civilian employee at the police station, this woman in her forties had "looked at him differently."
She had hinted, teased, and even explicitly stated—she wanted him to be her lover.
At the time, Wu Fan had Hans covering for him, and plus he wasn't into that, so he had always avoided her.
Now that the apocalypse had happened, her dead husband was probably already microorganisms in a Walkers's stomach.
The way she looked at Wu Fan was even more intense than before.
Wu Fan felt a wave of nausea.
"I didn't expect you to still be alive."
Dawn walked up to him and reached out to pat his shoulder.
Wu Fan sidestepped to avoid it.
Dawn's smile stiffened for a moment.
Just then, Rick, Shane, and Glenn walked out from the stairwell.
The three of them were fully armed, MP5 submachine guns in hand. Although the dark muzzles weren't pointed directly at anyone, their posture made it clear to everyone that they were not to be trifled with.
Dawn's smile completely vanished.
Behind her, her four subordinates instinctively reached for the holsters at their waists.
The atmosphere instantly became tense.
Rick's gaze swept over those people, and he moved slightly, standing beside Wu Fan.
Shane and Glenn also spread out, forming a semi-encircling formation.
Those policemen touched their gun grips but didn't dare to draw them.
They saw the guns in Rick and the others' hands—not the old glock they had, but brand-new MP5 submachine guns.
What was even more terrifying was the equipment on those people—bulletproof vests, tactical helmets, walkie-talkies, and flashbangs and grenades at their waists.
That was damn regular army gear.
They only had pistols.
Dawn's smile reappeared, but this time it was much more restrained.
She waved her hand and said to her subordinates, "Don't be nervous, these are our own people."
The policemen slowly let go of their guns and tucked them back into their waistbands.
But the vigilance in their eyes hadn't diminished at all.
Wu Fan looked at Dawn and said, "I'm taking some people with me."
Dawn's smile stiffened again. "Who?"
"Hans and his people, and those three patients."
Dawn was silent for a few seconds.
Her gaze lingered on Wu Fan's face for a long time, as if judging whether he was serious.
Then she looked at the guns in Rick and the others' hands, and then at her own subordinates who were clearly intimidated.
"Fine."
She finally said, her voice calm as if she wasn't conceding. "But there's a condition."
"Speak."
"Take us with you."
Wu Fan looked at her.
Dawn met his gaze without any flinching. "You have a helicopter, I saw it. Take us out of here, and you can take these people wherever you want."
Wu Fan thought for a moment and nodded. "Fine."
Dawn let out a sigh of relief, a smile reappearing on her face.
But that smile, no matter how you looked at it, had some other meaning.
Wu Fan turned and walked away.
On the way up, Rick leaned in and whispered, "That woman, you know her?"
"A former colleague."
Wu Fan replied simply.
Shane glanced at him, a playful smile at the corner of his mouth. "The way she looked at you doesn't seem like a normal colleague."
Wu Fan rolled his eyes at him. "If you like her, I can set you two up."
Shane shrugged and didn't speak again.
Rick, the three patients, and one of Dawn's subordinate police officers remained.
The helicopter took off again.
Sixteen people, packed like sardines in a can.
But no one complained.
Because through the window, they could see the dense mass of Walkerss below.
They could see the survivors still waving for help on the rooftops.
They could see Atlanta, a once-prosperous city, now turned into an ocean of the living dead.
And they were leaving that place.
Hans sat next to Wu Fan, looking out the window, and suddenly spoke.
"Wu, what you said, is it true? The vaccine?"
Wu Fan looked at him and nodded. "It's true."
Hans took a deep breath and turned to look out the window.
"That's good."
He said, "That's good."
The helicopter flew over the Atlanta skyline, heading toward the CDC.
Behind them, the city grew further and further away.