Stumble around

The hallway was dark and empty, save for a single, humming fluorescent light that flickered with a rhythmic, mechanical heartbeat. Grace pressed her back against the cold tile of the wall, her skin prickling in the sudden chill. She felt exposed, not just because of her lack of clothing, but because the silence of the facility felt like it was listening to her. Every small shift of her weight, every hesitant breath, seemed to echo too loudly in the sterile vacuum of the corridor.

Down one side was a glowing red lited corridor and the other was a door. She pushed open the door and flicked on the switch. Nothing.

"Shit." She turned back to the red corridor. Some light was better than none, even if the crimson glow made the walls look like they were bleeding. Grace moved with a cautious, gliding step, her feet slapping softly against the linoleum. Every few seconds, she paused to glance behind her, half-expecting to see that masked man gliding through the shadows, waiting for her to let her guard down.

"I can't believe I'm doing this," Grace whispered, her voice sounding fragile and thin in the oppressive red light. She felt a sudden, sharp prickle of shame, the kind that made her want to shrink into the floor tiles, despite the fact that there wasn't a soul in sight. She tried to walk with a strange, exaggerated caution, her arms crossed tightly over her chest, wondering if the facility had cameras. The thought of some nameless technician watching her stumble through the halls like a plucked chicken made her face burn with a heat that had nothing to do with the temperature of the room.

She flipped on the light switch and the lights came on. Well one futher down stayed on the one closer flickered and died. Grace walked toward the bright light and tried the door. Locked.

She moved past it and down the halls that were still dark. But there was a doorway out of the hallway and into the lobby blocked by a metal gate. She tried to button next to it but saw it was missing a fuse.

She saw a key on the table and picked it up. "Hassss to be to the room."

She unlocked the door and went in. It was a patient's room but no one was there. Unfortunately the bed had been stripped of any sheets so she had still had nothing to cover herself with.

In the closet was a zipo lighter and the fuse. But it wad locked behind a case that needed a screwdriver to open. Grace sighed, her breath hitching as she felt a draft from the air vent above.

The note she found said the tool box was in the nurses station. The dark room she had tried at the start. Flicking on the lighter, Grace watched the tiny flame dance, casting long, shivering shadows against the sterile walls. She hesitated, glancing back at the empty hallway. The vulnerability of her nakedness felt like a physical weight, making every inch of her skin feel hypersensitive to the draft. She moved back toward the door, her footsteps sounding like thunderclaps in the oppressive silence.

She went in slowly and opened the interior door. A dead body flew out into her shins, knocking her backward with a wet, heavy thud. Grace shrieked, scrambling backward on her heels, her arms instinctively crossing over her chest as she stared at the grey, shriveled thing that had once been a doctor.

Her hand shaked as she checked the pulse. "Hes...dead..." she turned his face revealing a bite missing from his neck. "Infected?"

"Oh god, oh god, oh god," Grace whimpered, her voice cracking as she scrambled further away from the corpse. She didn't just recoil from the dead body; she recoiled from the sheer absurdity of her situation. She was standing in a puddle of lukewarm fluids, completely naked, staring at a mutilated corpse in a facility that felt like it had been designed by a sadist. The sight of the ragged, torn flesh of the doctor's neck sent a jolt of primal terror through her, making her skin crawl.

Then a massive twisted hand grabbed the corpse from the side. Grace gasped as a hideous girl monster bit the head off right in front of her. Grace scrambled back, her bare feet slipping on the wet floor. She didn't think, she just ran. She sprinted back to the patient room as the monster growled and gave chase.

When she crossed the dark into the light the monster screamed as the light burned her and caused boiled to appear. The creature hissed and climbed into a whole in the ceiling.

"What the fuck is that?" She shaked as she tried to understand what the hell was going on.