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It’s been a month since his boss has fired him, and Ron has been frustrated since.
Why would Harlow just’ve done that? Out of the blue to his friend, a friend whom he’d met since college and even requested his service for his hospital, this was uncharacteristic of him.
Ron has since been working as an accountant for the government. It wasn’t bad, just boring. Filing papers for the whole day just gets tiring in three days. The only remotely interesting thing that happened was some rat chewing through some papers. Sometimes he even saw the rat around at the hospital he usually goes at, even sitting at the counter with the interns in the front office one time, strange.
Because of this, despite his animosity to his old friend, he still misses working at the hospital. He misses his coffee breaks and conversations with his coworkers, even if some of them seem to disappear or go mad by the next shift…
He hasn’t figured out how he managed to stay sane through all of that.
Ron reminisces on his bed until he heard his doorbell go off. ‘Who is even calling for me at 11 in the damn night, couldn’t even ring me a phone call before doing this.’ Ron thought tiredly as he walked down stairs then opened the door.. it was Harlow, at his front step.
Ron was about to yell at Harlow, questioning why the doctor even fired him out of nowhere despite their history until he noticed how sick Harlow seemed.
The doctor’s body looked pale and he was slightly shaking.
“.. Come in” Ron offered. “Thank you, old friend.” Harlow thanked him as he sat down at the couch.
Ron pulled a chair in front of Harlow and they both just sat there in silence until Harlow spoke, “Look- I’m sorry for firing you and then crashing in your house late at night, it’s just I-“
“No no, let’s just keep that conversation for tomorrow, I’m still frustrated about it but I don’t think we’re in the right mood or time to be discussing this.” Ron interrupted, despite how he just wanted to scream at the doctor’s face, his brain was just completely fried to even make an argument from the paperwork of the day.
The accountant probably should’ve questioned why Harlow was even here, but he trusts the doctor well enough to not destroy anything or be infected of any sorts. They’ve been in each other’s houses multiple times to know.
Harlow lied back to the couch and massaged his shoulders. “What even happened to you? You look like you just worked for 2 days straight and consumed two medicine bottles to keep you up instead of coffee.” Ron snickered.
“ Ugh not the time, just give me some painkillers and I’ll leave you alone, I’ll be staying in your house for the night whether you like it or not.” Harlow grumbled back.
“You really ran to my house instead of yours?” Ron questioned as he walked to the pantry and grabbed the pills from it.
Harlow just looked away in response, his face seems flustered.
”What even happened, I’ve never seen you in a condition like this.” He hands over the painkillers to the sickly doctor.
“ That’s.. confidential information.” Harlow answered. Ron said nothing in reply, he knows a thing or two about confidential information.
“Well uh, I’ll be going to sleep right now, goodnight.” Ron groggily said walking to the stairs.
“Right it’s 11..good night and sorry for disturbing you at this night.” Harlow mumbled loud enough for Ron to hear, Ron replied with a nod as he headed back to his room.
He closed the door shut and sat at his bed to ponder what just happened. Twenty minutes ago he was mulling over getting fired off his job for no absolute reason, and now the man who fired him is just in his house.
Ron was uneasy about this, not just because of Harlow himself, but something just felt.. off? Like the same type of feeling of seeing those anomalies around the hospital he used to work at.
What if Harlow was an anomaly this whole time?
No he couldn’t be, Harlow was always cautious of anomalies, even giving the hospital tasers and then a gun if any of the patients or workers were getting attacked. But if he is an anomaly then-
Shit, if the doctor was then Ron is dead to the ground by the next hour. But what can the accountant do? All he has is maple syrup in his suitcase that sat on the table to evade the bed monster. He doesn’t carry a loaded gun or a taser by his pocket all the time like he used to in the hospital.
Now that he thinks about it, it was strange for an accountant to carry weapons in a hospital but it was apart of his procedures to carry one in case something happened. He was confused why he had to carry weapons until he saw one of the patients attempt to eat another with its large jaws so he pulled out his gun from his pocket then..
CRASH!
He heard a vase breaking from downstairs and immediately ran down to see a horrific sight.
Harlow- no it can't be- a tall deer beast slouching so its head wouldn’t hit the wall was standing by the entrance to his living room.
This couldn't be, this couldn't be Harlow. The doctor has always been cautious of getting infected.
So then how did he get infected?
Ron got lost in his thoughts as his neck was grabbed by the figure and pinned to the wall.
He looked closer at the anomaly, it was deer with big antlers, its eyes were bloodshot staring at the bunny, mouth drooling as if it hadn’t eaten in a while.
Ron continued to look closer at the beast and concluded that yes, this was Harlow and he was infected.
Ron gagged as his breathing gets cut off, his legs flail uselessly in the air. He grabbed the anomaly's arms that were grabbing him by the neck as he struggled to break free from its grasp.
His vision blurs, this is the end isn't it? How foolish for the accountant to even let someone into his house at a pandemic like this, especially someone who has just fired him and left him as if he wasn't his friend for years.
Ron closed his eyes and accepted his fate, what's there to live for other than a paperwork, checkups, and the constant fear of this outbreak?
He can feel his head get lighter, until he was immediately dropped to the ground.
He gasped for air in heavy and fast pants for a thirty seconds. His breathing slowed down and he looked up at the anomaly.
Ron just now noticed how cold the room, which might’ve been caused by the anomaly considering it was summer.
The anomaly’s mouth was drooling as he leaned closer to the bunny.
The bunny’s face stung when the deer’s cold breath made contact with its face.
Ron would’ve accepted his fate right then and there, until he felt a heavy weight on his shoulder. Harlow was leaning against Ron, wrapping his long lanky arms around the accountant’s body and then just, slept.
Ron just sat there, still shaken by what just happened a mere seconds ago. At first, he was strangled by his old friend, and then he just slept on him and hugged him like a child hugging a bunny doll.
He attempted to wriggle his way out of the deer’s grasp but it got tighter the more he tried. These efforts are futile due to how heavy the deer was.
Ron gave up and decided to just sleep by the wall. This is gonna cause him the worst back pain of his life, but what can he do about it.
He looked at the clock: ‘12:21 AM’. His eyelids began to get heavier, ‘Thank god it’s a Saturday.’ Ron thought before he eventually fell asleep.