Day 375

The patients weren't where they should have been.
First day here, first break here and the second she got back all the patients had gone.
The matron was going to kill her, wherever she was.
She should have been around the area, it was A&E - it was always busy!

She went to the reception desk and was overjoyed that the receptionists were there.
Her relief soon faded when they said the patients should have been there, why aren't they there?
Their teeth chattered and their talons skittered over the keyboards, chains rattling.
She maintained the correct distance (2.5 meters, exactly on the cross) and waited.

After almost ten minutes they ceased and hooked up the intern to the printer.
Poor thing, they rarely lasted past the first paragraph.
The document they pushed through glass barrier had a room number on it.
One that she recognised as being a corridor on the top floor.

It wouldn't take her too long to get there so long as she used the porter's lift.
As she began to head there she noticed other staff members (no nurses, they were few here)
scouring the rooms, eyes black as coal and darting up and down their arms.
One of them (Consultant Sherrie, her nametag read) stopped her to ask where the patients were.

She said she was just on her way to fetch them and Consultant Sherrie nodded, black eyes all
merging on her cheeks to form eyes the size of tennis balls.
Taking this as a good sign she excused herself and continued to the porter's lift.
A brief glance at the receptionist's paper said the patient's location had changed.

They were moving, they shouldn't be moving.
As the matron said "If you can walk, you can go home", she wondered if that was their plan.
Shaking her head she rid herself of this notion, patients couldn't plan!
They were only partially in this plane of existence, held here by their wristbands.

God forbid they figure out how to remove them, they'd end up god knows where.
They'd go after food first, whatever and whoever they came across first.
In all honesty the hospital was more of a containment area than anything.
They still offered medical services, it made the patients feel cared for, kept them calm.

They would wait for weeks on end just to have a doctor (or consultant like Sherrie) talk to them.
Normally they'd be in the waiting area in whatever department they'd circled round to.
How did they get out and why were they heading to an unused bedding room.
As she entered the porter's lift (giving obligatory thanks to the Makers) she began to plan.

The patients main weakness was their apparent need for comfort and reassurance.
If they felt needed they were as active as a sack of flour, if left unchecked they were deadly.
The top floor felt like a lifetime away but time never flowed right in the hospital.
Other humans had complained but it never solved anything, the Head had no ears for mortals.

On floor six the lift stopped as a porter squeezed in beside her with a trolley of food.
Seems word of her retrieval had gotten around and he'd been sent as a backup.
Patients couldn't resist the smell of food, if he used it sparingly enough he could make a trail.
It was primitive but the options were few and any plan was a good plan.

After passing the rest of the ride with meaningless chittering noises (she'd been practising that) the
lift finally hit floor eleven and the sound of the patients filtered through the air.
Their breathy whimpers and shuffling feet came from the far side of the floor (the paper agreed it).
Putting on her friendliest smile she called out for them loudly.

She remembered a few of their names (or at least the ones they responded to sometimes, they liked
to have several as they thought it meant they got seen more often) and followed their replies.
Somehow they'd managed to all cram inside an area meant only for ten patients, all forty of them.
This would require far more help so she reassured them quickly and ran to the nearest phone.

In a matter of minutes the top floor was flooded with staff members and plans were made.
She was congratulated on finding the patients before their hunger grew too much to handle.
Soon enough they were all being escorted to stocked bays for check-ups.
Shame about the matron though, she'd kept them sated enough at least.