Chapter 1: Motherly Heart

The first time Bo cried, Jenna experienced the kind of joy and happiness one
rarely has an opportunity to feel. His little cries as he was pulled out and
slapped made her feel so proud, one of the best things that has ever happened to
Jenna.

The doctor covered Bo in a small towel and he was whisked away by a very tall
female nurse. The doctor talked to her about something she couldnt quite hear,
she was no tired and her mind could not think of anything else apart from her
own miracle which was Bo. She nodded wearily and then doctor left and she slept
and dreamed about how she was going to give Bo everything she didn't have when
she was growing up, a pretty house with a beautiful backyard, lots of ice cream,
a big, faithful dog to play with, his own bicyle at 6, slumber parties, birthday
celebrations, trips to Disney world and maybe if she gets lucky and finds the
right one, a new father.

Jenna woke up to the sound of screaming.

She sat up on her bed and looked around, she was alone in her private hospital
room but the door was wide open. She heard another scream but this time it was
faint, like the person who did it was far away, maybe in a dream, she squinted
her eyes and tried to listen really hard and she did hear something.. shuffling
feet.

"Hello?" - Jenna cried, she was curious but at the same time she was beggining
to worry, mainly because Bo was not close by and if something was wrong she
needed to go get him. She would never leave Bo the same way Jenna's mother left
her.

A shadow came into the view past the door and another patient appeared as he
shuffled slowly in the hallway corridor.

"Sir? are you ok? Do you need me to call a nurse?" - Jenna grabbed the little
nurse button without waiting for a reply and pushed once, twice, three times.
She wondered if she should get up and help the man or not. She still felt a
little weak.

Far away, the screaming continued and it was getting louder making her very
anxious and she decided to help the man and investigate, she began to move out
of her bed when the man at the door moaned.

Jenna fixed her gaze upon him as he slowly turned to his left to see her and
Jenna screamed mimicking the other screams far away. She could see the man had
half his face burned horribly and where the right eye should be, only an empty
socket remained. She continued screaming until her lungs and throat burned as
the figure raised his arms and outstretched them towards her and began to slowly
shuffle to her. That is when she heard running.

In a blink of an eye, the man was no longer in the hallway, she remembered she
saw a fast shadow moving across the door.. she breathed deeply and her lungs
recovered the precious air so desesperatly needed after all that screaming.

She could hear some fighting, moaning and grunts coming from the hallway
corridor that is when she remembered Bo. Did something happened? She needed to
get to him, now! Jenna got her clothes from the little closet in the room and
started dressing into her jeans and regular clothes she came to the hospital in,
she was ready to leave when a bloody man appeared in the room, she was holding a
scalpel and was sweaty and breathing erratically, Jenna froze to her spot like a
deer in the headlights.

"You!" - The man yelled. "You need to come with me, quick! They are everywhere!
First floor is overrun, we need to get to the emergency stairs, come with me if
you want to leave!"

Who was this man? Who were they? No. She would not leave without her baby!

"I need.." - Jenna began to say. "I need to get my baby. He's the only family I
have..I do not know who you are but please get out of my way."

Jenna began slowly walking towards him and he would not move. She stood up to
him and looked him the eyes. She would not get denied. She would die for Bo and
she wanted this man to understand that.

The man removed his arm from the door's frame and let her through with a
confused look. Jenna ignored him and looked around the hallway, she could see
the burned man sprawled on the floor, Jenna quickly turned around with surprise
on her face to look at the bloody man.

"You killed him!" - Jenna exclaimed.

"No, you dont understand lady, he was already dead! They are all dead but
they're not! Yeah, like zombies! The living dead! Please lady, let me save you!
I know how to get out of here, Im a nurse!"

"You want to help me? Tell me where the maternity ward is? I need to get my
baby!"

"Lady.. the maternity ward is on the second floor, those things are all over..
the one I just killed.. or re-killed.. he was one of the slow ones.. but there
are fast ones too.. I.. I.. have seen them kill the others." - With this last
sentence his face began to show panic. "Lady, we need to leave or we are dead!!!
You understand? DEAD!!"

Jenna didn't care, she grabbed an IV pole that was lying on the floor a few feet
away and started walking towards the stairs. If there were crazy people killing
others she would be prepared for them. Nothing would stand between Jenna and Bo,
not even Bo's real father or the living dead, if that would be the case.

The elevator pinged and opened for her and she saw blood everywhere but no
bodies, she gulped and stepped inside trying to not step on the puddles of
blood. She pressed 2 and the doors slowly started to close when a hand reached
out to her and stopped the doors from closing.

"Lady, I do not know what kind of ******* drugs you are taking but let me tell
you this, if you, by a miracle of God, survive and get your baby back go to 342
Maple Lane. If the movies are right and this is the zombie apocalypse, this town
will be overun within days and the fastest we get the hell out of here the
better. If I cannot save you now, I will be damned sure I will save you then. My
friends and I will leave tonight."

Jenna nodded and he removed his hand from the elevator, she could see he was
dissapointed, the kind of look you give someone when you know you wont see them
again and you wished you would.

The elevator doors closed.

Chapter 2: Elevated Heart

Jenna was very uncomfortable within the spacious hospital elevator, the blood
was slippery on her shoes and she had to hang to a little rail on the elevator
wall and to the I.V. pole she picked up earlier to keep herself steady. The
elevator made a loud 'ding!' and the door opened.

She was not ready when the blond young woman threw herself into the elevator
with her arms outstretched as if stumbling inside. Jenna let out a loud gasp as
the woman grabbed her blouse and fell to the elevator floor. She could see more
people coming towards them, slowly shuffling their feet and moaning longlingly,
Jenna wondered if these were real undead or just disoriented people. She hoped
for the latter but knew it was the former.

The woman on the floor grabbed Jenna's left knee trying to stand up, Jenna's
survival instincts inmediately kicked in, she was not going to get eaten here,
she had to save Bo and neither this stupid woman or the small mob coming towards
her will stop her.

Jenna elbowed the woman in her head trying to shake her off and was surprised by
a loud "Ow!" coming from her. The blond let go of Jenna's leg and used the
railing this time to quickly stand up, she watched the mob coming towards the
elevator and desperately pushed the elevators buttons. The doors began to close
and the elevator moved once again.

It took Jenna several seconds to come back to her senses, as she realized she
was moving away from her goal. She resolved to leave this young woman here and
get out on the next floor, she would take the stairs.

The woman fell to the floor and was grabbing her bandaged right arm, she looked
up at Jenna. She was a 19 or 21 year old college girl. Her expression was of
exhaustion and pain and tears formed around her eyes. The girl started to cry as
she sat down on the bloody corner, putting her head between her knees.

The elevator doors opened again, Jenna checked and they had went up to the 5th
floor. The coast was clear. Without taking her eyes off the girl Jenna stepped
outside leaving bloody footprints behind her as she walked away.

The crying girl continued her muffled wail as the elevator doors closed.

The hospital had two elevators, so Jenna tried the other one. Certainly it was
going to be faster than the stairs, so she tried calling it. After a few moments
the second elevator's doors opened and to her surprise it was already occupied.

Three men were in the elevator, an old patient with only his hospital gown and a
deep dry blody gash on his neck, a man who apparently was a doctor had half of
his face bitten and clawed and only had one eye, you could see his jaw and teeth
through his partly consumed cheek. The last one wore a torn business suit, his
intestines dropped to the floor from a huge cavity in his abdomen.

Jenna took three steps back as the men slowly turned around to face her, the
first one stepped out of the elevator, Jenna hurriedly looked around and
realized she had left her I.V. pole with the girl in the other elevator.

The undead doctor moaned and lurched at her as he exited the elevator, he
quickened his pace; Next came the old patient and finally the business man all
of them making growling and moaning sounds.

Jenna picked up a vase from a small tall table nearby and threw it at the doctor
hitting him squarely on the face, he didnt even blink as the vase shattered into
pieces and fell to the floor. She grabbed the small table and threw it at him
too, this time the table made him trip and the doctor fell face down to the
floor. The old patient behind him falling down as well as if he didnt notice
that the doctor was in front of him.

Thankfully, these zombies were stupid.

Jenna deftly jumped over the doctor and stepped carefully out of the old
patient's reach, they were trying to get up. She also kept an eye on the
business man, oddly, this one only looked at her but didnt move towards her, the
elevator doors were still open, the business man's loose entrails were blocking
the doors.

Jenna pushed the business man in the chest and out of the way and went into the
elevator, kicking the disgusting organs outside so the doors could close and
they did.

She pushed the button labeled '2' again and the elevator moved once again. She
was getting mentally ready to confront the small mobs of zombies on the
maternity ward's floor. She counted six maybe seven last time. She thought of
Bo, crying his little head off with the other babies, Jenna could feel the
adrenaline pumping her up. She would make a run for it, elbowing and punching
faces as necessary through them.

The elevator doors opened and a dead woman's face turned towards her, she
punched her in the nose making a loud crunch, an explosion of pain erupted from
her fist and the old lady fell back and down to the floor. Jenna stepped over
her and saw three more in the hallway. She grabbed the first one, a nurse, and
threw her into another zombie close by, they both fell to the floor. The third
zombie, an overweight middle-age man with bandages on his head, lurched at her
and grabbed her shoulder to try and bite her face.

Jenna grabbed his chin to keep his mouth off of her and thinking quickly, she
swept him off his feet, the zombie lost balance and she easily threw him off to
the side. Jenna ran forward. She could hear moaning all around her, from the
next intersection she could see six more to the left and another group to her
right. She tried to remember the way and decided to go straight and the zombies
slowly shuffled towards their next meal.

A muffled scream was heard in the distance and Jenna's conscience gave her a
faint tingly feeling of guilt as she remembered the young blond girl she had
left behind, but she did not have time for this right now and out of the corner
of her eye she saw the sign she was looking for.

She went running through an open door as moans sounded closer and closer behind
her and came face to face with another doctor who did a quick sweeping motion
with one of his arms, Jenna instinctively raised her arms to shield herself, she
screamed in pain as the deep cut burned her and at the same time the doctor
screamed in surprise.

- "Ahh!!~ You're alive..", the doctor said, as if apologizing in the same
sentence.

- "What the hell do you think you are doing!! You could have killed me!!", Jenna
retorted.

- "I thought..." the doctor was interrupted in mid-sentence as the zombie's
moans grew louder, they were coming.. all of them.

He quickly ran to the door and closed it again, he grabbed an empty incubator
nearby and put it against the door. He looked around to find more ways to block
the door.

- "Don't you stand there, woman! Help me with the door!" - "Im bleeding to death
here, you stupid ****!"

Her arm was really bleeding profusely, Jenna looked around for something to
bandage her arm while the doctor stashed another empty incubator into the
barricade. Pounding came to the barricated door and more and more hands pushed
and pushed against it, the incubators moved a few inches, the doctor panicked
trying to put his whole body as he tried to keep the door closed.

Jenna was starting to get dizzy, her breath was short and she felt tired, her
recuperating body trying to get some more rest. She saw another door at the back
of the room that said Bassinet room, her eyes lighted up and she clumsily
quickly staggered towards the door but she found it was locked. She grabbed the
doorknob with her good arm and tried pulling and pushing her way into the room,
she banged on the door and started to scream in frustration.

- "Shut up! They wont go away if you keep making noise!! Shut it!!!"

Jenna did not care, all she cared was about Bo and he was just right behind this
******* dumb door that would not ******* open!!

- "Bo!!! Bo!!! Please God No!! Bo!!!" She banged and threw herself at the door
trying to force her way in but the door was strong and her body was shutting
down.. her arm went numb as a small puddle of her blood was forming beneath her,
she felt weak, her shoulder hurt, her head hurt.. she was starting to get
dizzier and dizzier and her vision was fading away.

She fell to the floor, exhausted, tears and blood on her face. She was starting
to loose consciousness, the last thing she heard was a loud 'click' from the
bassinet room door.

Chapter 3: Painful Heart

Pain is a strong feeling, its a defense mechanism that tells our brain something is wrong.
Jenna's brain was getting the message loud and clear.

- "Doctor, she's waking up!" a woman's whisper said.

She felt someone touching her forehead with a wet towel or something similar,
her senses were coming back, becoming stronger than the dull of the pain.

- "She'll be okay, she only needs more rest. " A man's voice said.

Jenna's eyes opened and bright light flooded her, it slowly dissipated and the room's ceiling came into view.
She tried getting up but she was held down by the doctor, a nurse was besides him and she touched her own lips with a lone finger and said "Shh.. you'll stir them up, we don't want that, we need to be quiet."

The nurse pointed to the other side of the room, past the bassinets, dark figures were slowly swaying from one end to the other. The glass with a big crack that made the bassinet's room viewing window being the only thing separating them from the room. A flash passed through her mind and she remembered.

- "Bo!" She gasped faintly.. her voice was hoarse.
- "Quiet down mam! Please, if they get riled up they might break the glass, besides, you have lost a lot of blood and should rest." The nurse tried to be calm and sweet and she did a good job of it.

- "My baby.. Bo.. is he ok? is he here?"

The doctor moved away and sat on a chair close by, the redheaded nurse smiled and nodded.

- "The babies are ok, I made sure of it, they're sleeping peacefully now. I fed them while you were sleeping a while ago. That is the reason why so many of them are gathered outside.. they hear them cry and.. and.. they want them."

The doctor opened a can of soda and it made a loud "chhhk". One of the zombies on the other side of the window moaned softly. He took a drink and spoke.

- "We should get out of here as soon as possible. If the police or the army haven't arrived yet, it means we are on our own here and us being surrounded by those monstrosities is not a good scenario."

The young nurse turned around and worry could be seen on her face.

- "What about the babies? We cannot carry them all!" The nurse said, a little louder than she intended.

The doctor closed his eyes and adjusted his eyeglasses, putting them back on the bridge of his nose.

- "They're just going to slow us down, we leave them behind."

-"WHAT?!", the nurse shrieked.

Jenna was sitting up on the makeshift bed they had made within the bassinet room, she quickly turned to see the dark figures as the started to shift around and move replying to the nurse's exclamation.

Several moans started happening in unison like an infernal concerto, the zombies started to bang on the glass to the rhythm of the creepy music.

Jenna stood up and started to scan the bassinets. "Charlie", "Azul", "Shawn", "Angel", "Clarisse"... Where's Bo?!
She heard glass cracking and panicked.. Bo!

The nurse started to panic as well and started pushing the bassinets out of the room, the babies begun to cry and scream in response to all the noise and movement. She took "Barbra" and "Ben" first.

Jenna was scanning the remaining bassinets until she found the one labeled "Bo", her eyes went wide and she looked inside.. there he was in all his tiny glory.

She didn't notice it but she was crying of joy, she picked him up gently with her good arm and hugged him tight to her bosom, she heard tiny bells and sprinkles and she felt light and happy as if she could float away from here on a cloud, she smiled widely and showered the little bundle with kisses, someone grabbed her arm and she shrugged him off, then a slap to her face. Pain.. a strong message.

- "Snap out of it, you *****!", The doctor screamed.

The nurse took another couple of babies, this time leaving the bassinets behind. The doctor was now using them to make a make-shift barricade between the crumbling viewing room window and themselves.

- "Help me or we all die!!"

Jenna slowly snapped out of it and began moving bassinets with her free hand, her brain screamed as the pain surged through her upper body, she squeezed Bo a little afraid of letting him fall.

The window finally shattered under the pressure and two zombies started to crawl over and up the bassinets. The nurse screamed behind her as she took another couple of babies out of the room. The doctor bashed an oncoming zombie in its head with the chair he was sitting on earlier.

- "Doc! Lets get out of here! Now!!" , Jenna ordered.

The doctor nodded and left the chair on the zombie, he quickly went outside the room and into the open hallway after Jenna, he closed the door behind him. The redheaded nurse was coming back, fear in her face and screamed:

- "The babies!! They are calling for me! We got to save the rest!"
She tried pushing the doctor out of the way as the zombies poured into the closed bassinet room behind him.

-"Nurse Adams! Lock this door right now!", the doctor said with a stern voice.

-"The others.. Charlie!! Diana!! Tom!", the nurse started to cry.

Jenna could feel her pain.. it was apparent this woman loved those babies as her own.. she knew what she was going through, she lowered her head and softly spoke towards the nurse.

-"Listen, nurse Adams... they're gone...Im sorry but we have to make sure the others survive.. please.. help the other babies, help my Bo.. lock this door so they can't come in and get us.. please nurse Adams, do it for Ben, Shawn and the others..."

With a sniffle, she got a keyring out of her uniform's pocket and gave it to the doctor.

- "Its the blue and pink one.." the nurse said, walking back to the babies she saved. As the doctor locked the door, the door rattled as the first of them started pounding it.

Jenna could see the nurse carrying a baby laid on the floor into a bassinet and softly whispering "Shh little one, a friend has come to see you, you'll need to share you bed for now.."

He watched his Bo.. he was still crying.. this was the second time she saw him, the first being shortly after the delivery. She carried him and started to sing to him softly in his ear, rocking him, trying to make him fall asleep.

The doctor was busy checking the other doors, they had locked themselves inside this part of the hospital.
After a while, the doctor came back and approached the two women.

- "We are secure for now, let's move out of the hallway and into the nurse's station down the hall. We don't want to continue making them try to break that door, we should move."

Jenna nodded and offered to help nurse Adams moving the surviving babies out. She counted six of them. The full was almost full back there.. Jenna could feel a stormy cloud veiling her heart.

The evening passed without incident, the doctor turned on the news and all this pictures of chaos and disorder came through, they were asking people in cities to evacuate to safe zones and people in suburbs to stay put, to avoid contact with the infected and to avoid large gatherings of people if possible. The army was handling it and that they already contained the infection on the western and northern states.

They had made a temporal room for the babies in an empty storage room close to the vending machines in the little waiting room facing the nursing station. Bo was sleeping tightly next to a baby named Judy. She could not stop staring at him.. at his peaceful face oblivious at the danger he and his mother was facing.

- "They like it when you hold their hands, you know?", Adams said.
- "Oh? even if they are asleep?", Jenna asked.
- "Yes."

Jenna held Bo's tiny hand and Bo wrapped his hand around her ring finger, he squeezed a little and he baby-sighed.
Jenna's heart melted once again.

- "I'm Jenna by the way"
- "My name is Beatrice.. but everyone calls me Betty.. yes, I know, cliched."
The nurse's face smiled but Jenna could see the despair and sorrow in her eyes.

- "Well nurse Betty, Thank you for saving him..I really mean it.. thank you from the bottom of my heart."
Jenna let go of Bo gently and turned around to face Betty, she gave her a big hug trying to ignore the pain from her injured arm, she started to cry. Both women started crying and hugging each other tightly.

Outside their room, the doctor was listening to the conversation. He sighed and walked away, holding a key from the keyring on his hand.

Chapter 4: Loving Heart