Tearing into the hospital, he leapt and ran, cut anything in his path, and made his way to Helena’s room.

A white sheet covered her face.

Beside her bed, a lone black boot sat.

“Cher…Helena?” El Wray whispered, pulling the sheet down slowly. “jesus Christ, all right, we’ve gotta go.”

A miserable, tear stained face met his. “I can’t go anywhere.” Helena said stubbornly. “LOOK AT ME!” Her stump, freshly dressed, with a metal piece in the middle, reminded him of his failure that night. El Wray took a deep breath, then grabbed her hand.

“We’ve gotta go.”

“I CAN’T WALK DIPSHIT!” Helena shouted at his departing back. “I have no leg…I was gonna be a stand up comedienne…”

“you’re not funny. Now walk.”

“I have no…”

“now you do!” El Wray grabbed a leg from the table next to him, wrenched it off, then shoved it onto Helena’s metal attachment. “Now walk!”

They lurched and ran out of there, avoiding the infected who had enough on their hands.

Down the hallway, one of Dr. Block’s patients had smeared infected blood in his eyes. He was temporarily distracted by the rising fever, boils and strange urges to eat people.  He had not forgotten about his wife though.

Meanwhile, Bette Porter—who would drop the Dr. from her name, once this night was through, until such time as she could figure out how to put her medical training together with her artistic aspirations—drove with Amy to her father’s house.

Inside, Melvin Porter, the former Sheriff of the county, had just axed his zombie wife. “Sorry darlin’.” He said sadly. She had turned, after being sick for an hour with a mysterious bite—some neighborhood kid, who she’d taken pity on.

Bette hesitated. ‘goddamn grumpy old man’, she thought to herself. It had been so long since they talked, but he was the only person she could turn to.  “Ok, look honey…” She opened the glove compartment, and looked around. She had no clue as to what was going on, but she did know that people were being eaten alive on the sides of the road. Inside the globe compartment, she took out a gun. “If anybody comes, I want you to shoot them…just like in your video games, all right? You shoot them in the head. Can you do that?”