Chapter 5 - The Locked Ward
"Lock down the floor!" my husband roared, sprinting out of the room.
He flashed his first-responder badge at the startled nursing staff.
"Nobody gets in or out of this wing until I say so!"
Sirens began to blare inside the hospital as the emergency lockdown protocols engaged.
Heavy fire doors slammed shut at the ends of the corridors, trapping everyone currently on the floor.
I stayed firmly planted by Harper's side, my body acting as a human shield over her bed.
My eyes darted to every shadow, every passing reflection in the interior windows.
Two armed hospital security guards arrived within minutes, taking up posts right outside our door.
My husband returned with the charge nurse, pulling a rolling computer cart into the room.
"We are pulling the security feed from the hallway right now," he said.
The nurse typed rapidly, bringing up the grid of cameras outside the intensive care unit.
We watched the digital time stamp tick backwards to the moment I received the text.
A figure in light blue scrubs and a surgical mask had paused outside our door.
They had lifted a phone, snapped the photo, and then walked calmly toward the stairwell.
"That's Lauren," I whispered, recognizing the distinctive way my sister tilted her head.
She hadn't fled the city with our mother after all.
She had driven straight here, blending in with the medical staff.
The camera showed her trying the stairwell door, but the lockdown had already disabled the handle.
She was trapped on the floor with us.
The security guards drew their radios to report her position.
Suddenly, the power on the entire floor cut out, plunging us into total darkness.
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The emergency backup lights flickered on, casting an eerie red glow across the room.
Through the silence, I heard the faint, terrifying sound of our room's door handle slowly clicking open.
