Work Text:
Lunch break could not come fast enough. The downside of not having a set time for it enforced by the higher ups meant that the breaks could only happen when the workload allowed it.
Jay had been waiting for 30 minutes for New Guy What’s His Face to come back from his break, and normally, they wouldn’t mind a little bit of a delay. They weren’t a time clock cop. But by now, that meant the guy had spent a solid hour on his break, and they were this close to literally biting off Emily’s head out of hunger.
She didn’t deserve it though. It was just the hangry coming through, and they knew it.
They flinched at the phone next to them ringing, and while they had resigned themself to answer, Emily must have sensed the irritation and answered it.
While they checked the expected list one more time, she handled the call. They could only hear her side of it, but it sounded like someone was trying to ask about a Marguerite Baker.
“If you need results, you have to call Medical Records or your doctor.”
They could repeat that phrase in their sleep at this point. They don’t know why more than one attempt had been made to get the results on that lady, but everyone who worked here had had to field a call trying to ask about her.
Once she hung up the call, she finally looked over at them and said, “He should be back soon, why don’t you go ahead and eat?”
“You sure? It’ll be just you.” They wanted to go really badly, but running the lab for such a big hospital solo was near impossible. Today’s call outs had already strained the workers, and New Guy was still learning the ropes.
“Yeah, he’s gotta be on his way back by now. Maybe the line at the cafeteria was long?”
“Maybe, I’ll see.” They shrugged off their plastic lab coat and placed it on the chair they had been sitting in. “If it gets bad, I’ll have this with me.” They picked up the only mobile phone in the lab and clipped it to their scrubs.
“Not gonna eat in the break room?”
“Nah, I want to pick up something sweet, and I’ll just eat there.”
“Alright, hope you enjoy!”
“I will.”
With that discussion finished, they washed their hands, went to the break room, grabbed their lunch box and water bottle from the fridge, and started walking towards the cafeteria.
They had thought about grabbing their 3DS while they were at it, but between going to and from the cafeteria, and the possibility of being called back early, they didn’t think it was worth it. The chances of picking up some extra people for their street pass plaza didn’t occur to them until they were already halfway down the hall, and it was too late to go back.
Oh well.
The cafeteria itself didn’t look that busy, but they figured it could’ve calmed down in the amount of time it took for them to get there.
They idly browsed the dessert in the hot bar, and while bread pudding was okay, they really wanted chocolate.
There was one last chocolate chip cookie for sale by the register, and by totally not power walking towards it, they were able to grab it before someone else could swoop in. The cashier gave them a knowing look, but outside of the generic greeting he was expected to say, he didn’t comment.
After paying, they took a seat at a small two person table in a corner on the far side of the dining room, and hoped no one would see their red scrubs, assume they were a nurse, and ask them questions.
For all the posturing about giving each departments different scrub colors to prevent confusion, it didn’t matter when the patients weren’t given a color chart to tell them what each color means.
And the color coding didn’t matter if one chose to just wear business attire instead of scrubs, so.
Anyway.
Thankfully, no one bothered them as they unzipped their lunchbox emblazoned with the symbol and name of the hospital chain (aka the Hospital Week gift of the year) and dumped out their meal. It wasn’t much, just a sandwich, a plastic bag full of cut fruit, a small can of V8 juice, and their plastic water bottle .
The chicken salad sandwich was courtesy of their roommate making way more than he needed, and they were not the type to turn down free food. Especially since he minded their aversion to celery in this batch.
Speaking of. They pulled out their phone while they chewed on their sandwich and checked their messages.
The house chat only had a couple, so they checked that one first.
DevilMayCry (Ignis) Today at 3:00 PM
-Thnx for getting the dishes! Ngl I was dreading it
Evil Resident (Arthur) Today at 3:05 PM
-Wasnt me Thank Jay.
DevilMayCry (Ignis) Today at 3:06 PM
-Hell yeah, thank you jay!!!
Evil Resident (Arthur) Today at 3:58 PM
-Heads up, cat mess on the rug, it’s being enzyme treated outside
After taking another bite, they sent their own message.
Haunting Ground (Jay) Today at 7:36 PM
-No prob, you made me food, I can do dishes. And gotcha, watch out for the rug when I get home
They cleaned out the rest of their messages and responded if needed, but as soon as their message app no longer had a red number next to it, they switched to YouTube and put their earbuds in. The phone attached to their scrubs would vibrate if it went off, so they didn’t think it would be a problem.
They pulled up a new video that one of their usual channels posted, and with their entertainment handled, they continued their meal. It didn’t take long to finish the food and drink the liquid tomato paste, and soon they were leaning on their elbows so that they could better watch the small screen.
The let’s play they were watching was for a slightly older indie game that they had heard about, so they were eager to see how it went.
So engrossed were they, they didn’t notice that the dining area had completely emptied.
Not until they paused the video to check the time, and seeing that they needed to get back, took out their earbuds and glanced around. It wasn’t unheard of for the area to be empty, but that usually happened later in the night.
They couldn’t shake off the unease completely despite having walked the hospital during the dead hours of morning. They decided to head back to the lab quickly. The hum of the machines and the busy workflow would ground them and hopefully shake off the strange feeling.
They dumped their trash in a nearby can, and after cleaning up their table, they checked their phone one last time.
Strangely, the connection for their messaging app seemed spotty? Their earlier message to their housemates was still greyed out like it hadn’t sent yet.
They weren’t too worried since it wasn’t time sensitive, and they could resend it later when they had a minute. For now, though, they needed to get back to work, and they wanted to be fully alert while going through the halls.
As they took a brisk pace, they kept an eye out for other people. Both to make sure they didn’t run into anyone, literally, and to ensure that everyone else knew where they were going. It was unlikely a patient or visitor would need their help, but it was policy to always aid anyone looking lost.
Even if all they did was take them back to the front desk. With their job, they only knew how to get to a few set areas of the hospital, and most of them were closer to the lab.
Either way, right before they were about to cross an intersection, their eyes went up to the round mirror in the ceiling.
The feature, usually used to ensure no collisions happened, meant that they saw something around the corner that they couldn’t quite comprehend. It made them pause as they stared.The curved reflection only showed a strange dark mass moving slowly down the intersecting hallway. They thought they saw legs and wondered if it was just a really distorted security guard’s reflection. Or maybe EVS with one of the pushable trash containers? They quieted the pit of unease that threatened to crawl up their spine with the much more likely answers.
Whoever it was didn’t seem to have a destination in mind with the way they meandered.
Figuring that it was someone checking their messages, they approached the intersection slowly. They lifted their hand up in a polite wave before their brain fully caught up with what they were seeing as they entered the crossing.
It wasn’t EVS or security.
If it had been once, the slimy black substance that covered their body completely hid their clothing or any other form of identifying information.
The thing seemed to register that there was a person in front of it, and Jay could only appreciate the claws at the end of the boney arms and the long fangs taking up most of its face for a brief second before it lurched towards them.
They brought their arms up to protect them as they stumbled backwards, but their momentum took them out of harm’s way in time.
The creature wound up for another lunge, and Jay took the opportunity to book it down the hallway, rules about running be damned.
Their shoes squeaked on the well waxed floor, and the creature’s wheezing growl could be heard as it gave chase.
The administration and classroom doors were ignored since they weren’t sure which ones would be locked, and they didn’t want to waste valuable time.
Unfortunately, they had run in the wrong direction to get an outside exit, but they did see a stairwell symbol pointing to the left at the next intersection.
The fireproof door would be better than nothing.
Thankfully, this creature’s shambling steps couldn’t keep up with them, and the moment they got through the door, they braced themself against it. They made sure to stay out of the window, and listened.
There was no way that thing didn’t hear the heavy door open and close, but they hoped it lost their trail.
The gargled sounds of something that shouldn’t be breathing approached, but the rumble of aggression when it saw them was no longer there.
They covered their mouth with their hand in an attempt to keep their heavy breathing quiet, but the moment they could hear the ragged breaths on the other side, they all but stopped.
Until it moved past it.
Jay’s shaking limbs barely held them up and they guided themself to sit on the floor for a moment, hand still covering their mouth until they could no longer hear the creature.
What the FUCK was that?
They didn’t have any idea of what that could be.
They nearly jumped out of their skin when the mobile lab phone rang.
In a desperate attempt to make it stop making noise, they accidentally hit the answer button.
“Blood Bank? This is security, are you okay?” They barely heard the question before hitting the end call button.
Shit. They should’ve said something about the fucking MONSTER IN THE HALLWAY.
They didn’t know what number just tried to call them, but they couldn’t stay there and find out if it heard the loud noise.
They ran up the stairs to the next landing, and, after taking a quick look out of that window, they first muted the ringer, and then called the hospital operator.
Instead of an answer or an endless ringing loop, the call cut out immediately.
Great. I can’t call an emergency.
They tried going through the previous call log, and the number they found there had a busy signal.
Getting frustrated, they switched to their actual cell phone, and saw that the data AND the call bars were x’ed out.
What the actual fuck?
They contained the urge to chuck both phones down the stairwell, and put them in their scrub shirt pockets, one on each side. They could only hope that security would call back soon, or they’d try later.
For now, they just decided to try and head back to the lab and warn Emily...