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Book: You and Me against the World: The Creepers Saga Book 1 by Raymond Esposito
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Authors: Raymond Esposito
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the new job. Now she had no back up, and the doctors and nurses were screaming orders at her. Ashley wanted to remind them that she was not a nurse; she was trained to take blood pressure, not perform emergency room procedures. She doubted they cared; people were flowing through the front doors in unmanageable numbers. Some of the patients were so weak with flu they could not stand on their own. Others came in with injuries that looked like animal attacks and still others were comatose. She did the best she could, applying bandages and helping with tourniquets. When several nurses dropped from sickness or exhaustion, she began dispensing injections and applying sutures on the orders of the doctors. She figured when it was all over, someone would fire her for practicing medicine without a license.
All she had wanted was to earn enough money for school and do something where she could help, where she could make a difference.
Something better than serving food to angry lunchtime guests at Panera.
She wondered if her mother would be disappointed if she quit. Just grabbed her backpack and walked out the front door. She knew that was just her fear talking. She really didn’t mind helping, and she didn’t mind the yelling; she just didn’t want to screw up and kill someone.
A man in exam room 1 howled. Ashley dropped the tray of medicine at the sound. It was a long, painful, animal noise. A doctor backed out of the room, holding his face and screaming. There was a black liquid all over him and tendrils of smoke rose from the doctor’s skin. He ran blindly into Ashley, and they both fell to the floor. She was pinned beneath him. She could see the doctor’s skin come off in angry red and black sheets. She screamed too, and pushed him off her. A spot of the black liquid landed on her neck; it burned, and she wiped it off. The howling man crashed out of the room and spotted her. He growled and ran at her with his arms out. Ashley ran too.
The waiting room was violent chaos as people attacked each other. She almost tripped over the fallen security guard who held his bleeding neck. She crouched down to help him, her pursuer forgotten for the moment. He shook his head; his voice was broken and garbled.
“Just run,” he told her.
She ran into the nearest hallway, but it turned out to be a dead end. She turned around and several people were in the doorway. Their eyes were blue and cloudy, and their jaws hung down in hungry yawns. They ran toward her, and she had nowhere to go. Both doors at her end of the hall were locked. She grabbed the fire extinguisher from the wall and figured she could take out at least one of her attackers.
“Oh well,” she said aloud, “my karma sucked anyway.”
Chapter 5
Howdy Neighbor
I t’s a creepy day in the neighborhood
Thorn’s home at Falcon Oak was five miles from the hospital. The chaos and confusion was mounting, but it had not yet broken to the point of meltdown. The traffic was no heavier in the eastbound lane of Daniels than on any other day, and the three made the trip in silence.
Economic hardship in Florida was severe. Nearly a third of the homes in the state were vacant. Falcon Oak had fared no better. The development’s two hundred fifty single-family houses were arranged on four separate loops that from the air gave the impression of a four-leaf clover. Sixty of these homes were vacant, some for sale, and others just abandoned. Another thirty or so had seasonal residents who were back up north or in Europe during the summer months. Thorn thought that the vacancies might work in their favor.
His house demonstrated the same financial reserve as his Jeep. The two-story corner lot was no mini-mansion with a Gulf view. There was no long stone driveway lined with palms. Inside he had no great dining hall for entertaining. It was just an average, middle-class Florida home in a development that didn’t even boast a golf course. It was the type of home a couple bought when
All she had wanted was to earn enough money for school and do something where she could help, where she could make a difference.
Something better than serving food to angry lunchtime guests at Panera.
She wondered if her mother would be disappointed if she quit. Just grabbed her backpack and walked out the front door. She knew that was just her fear talking. She really didn’t mind helping, and she didn’t mind the yelling; she just didn’t want to screw up and kill someone.
A man in exam room 1 howled. Ashley dropped the tray of medicine at the sound. It was a long, painful, animal noise. A doctor backed out of the room, holding his face and screaming. There was a black liquid all over him and tendrils of smoke rose from the doctor’s skin. He ran blindly into Ashley, and they both fell to the floor. She was pinned beneath him. She could see the doctor’s skin come off in angry red and black sheets. She screamed too, and pushed him off her. A spot of the black liquid landed on her neck; it burned, and she wiped it off. The howling man crashed out of the room and spotted her. He growled and ran at her with his arms out. Ashley ran too.
The waiting room was violent chaos as people attacked each other. She almost tripped over the fallen security guard who held his bleeding neck. She crouched down to help him, her pursuer forgotten for the moment. He shook his head; his voice was broken and garbled.
“Just run,” he told her.
She ran into the nearest hallway, but it turned out to be a dead end. She turned around and several people were in the doorway. Their eyes were blue and cloudy, and their jaws hung down in hungry yawns. They ran toward her, and she had nowhere to go. Both doors at her end of the hall were locked. She grabbed the fire extinguisher from the wall and figured she could take out at least one of her attackers.
“Oh well,” she said aloud, “my karma sucked anyway.”
Chapter 5
Howdy Neighbor
I t’s a creepy day in the neighborhood
Thorn’s home at Falcon Oak was five miles from the hospital. The chaos and confusion was mounting, but it had not yet broken to the point of meltdown. The traffic was no heavier in the eastbound lane of Daniels than on any other day, and the three made the trip in silence.
Economic hardship in Florida was severe. Nearly a third of the homes in the state were vacant. Falcon Oak had fared no better. The development’s two hundred fifty single-family houses were arranged on four separate loops that from the air gave the impression of a four-leaf clover. Sixty of these homes were vacant, some for sale, and others just abandoned. Another thirty or so had seasonal residents who were back up north or in Europe during the summer months. Thorn thought that the vacancies might work in their favor.
His house demonstrated the same financial reserve as his Jeep. The two-story corner lot was no mini-mansion with a Gulf view. There was no long stone driveway lined with palms. Inside he had no great dining hall for entertaining. It was just an average, middle-class Florida home in a development that didn’t even boast a golf course. It was the type of home a couple bought when
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